Blood, Bullets, and 2 Butterflys
by SkeletonConductor
Summary: The sequal to the events of the first story. Taking place after Degeneration, Claire Redfield pays Leon a visit, not realizing he's in love with someone very special. The enemy! Rated T for some language and a few adult situations. Chapter 6 finally up!
1. Gotta Knock A Little Harder

**Author's Note: I do NOT own Resident Evil, the characters or anything else that has been created by Capcom. All I 'own' is this scenario.**

Commercial flying. It's not the most desirable of travel conditions. You're packed like sardines into a long metal tube with a handful of other people. People who are loud, unhygienic, and possibly carrying a variety of bacteria that could keep the CDC happy for days. The food is hardly able to be consumed by humans and the in-flight movies are usually two years too old. Not to mention the fact that you're suspended thousands of miles in the air in a high pressurized environment. In the wake of 9/11, there was a noticeable decline in its usage. And yet, millions of people continue to use it every day.

Leon S. Kennedy was one of those people. He stared out of the window, resting his head on his fist and watching the clouds as the plane moved by at a snails pace. When in actuality they were moving at a high almost sonic speed. It was funny how something as mundane as the clouds could calm anyone. The mix of blue and white. They way that they stayed transfixed in the sky, weightless. It all seemed somehow, poetic.

It was no wonder why people would spend hours lying on their backs on some grassy knoll, staring up at the sky.

"_Doesn't sound too bad_", Leon thought, musing at the possibility of a quiet afternoon.

He could have had a first class seat. He could have taken a trip on a government aircraft. But Leon had opted to take a commercial flight instead.

In retrospect, it was probably not the most intelligent decision that he had made in the past week. Given what had happened at the Harvardville Airport merely days ago, only a person with a death wish would choose to fly in an airplane. A man with no regard for his own safety would take a flight in a commercial air liner as opposed to a government sanctioned craft.

But Leon was a man of balance. And it was this day that he had opted for a regular flight home. Despite everything he had been through, sometimes all Leon wanted was a return to normality. Even if it were through something as insignificant as taking a flight with civilians. Civilians that included the obese man stuffed into a Hawaiian themed shirt dotted with pineapples. Or the baby that hadn't stopped screaming for the last hour and a half. Or even the small child that had been kicking the seat next to the one Leon sat in.

He should have been more annoyed. Yet, in his experience, Leon knew that life was too short to get worked up over trivial little things. For these people had no idea how lucky they were. They would never know how close they came everyday to annihilation. Whether it be from terrorist attacks or the virus outbreaks that had plagued the planet for the better part of a decade. They would never know that if it weren't for people like him, and others that had put their lives on the line or paid the ultimate sacrifice….

"Can I get another drink for you sir?" a feminine voice spoke to him.

"Huh?" Leon said, taking his attention away from the clouds and his thoughts.

He turned and faced the young flight attendant. She had to have been no older than twenty seven. Her short brown hair was styled into a bob cut and her blue uniform clung to her small frame, the skirt showing off her tanned legs. A mess of freckles dotted her cheek bones.

"A refill. It looks like you could use one" she smiled, pointing to the small plastic cup that Leon held absently in his hand.

"Oh right, right", Leon said, giving a small laugh and slightly shaking himself away from his thoughts as he offered the cup to the woman who filled it again with a fresh Sprite.

The flight attendant smiled before saying "We'll be landing in about half an hour"

With that, she went to pushing the snack cart down the isle to check on the other passengers. Leon, however, didn't even lift the drink to his mouth. He was more content with letting his mind wander. There was so much to digest after the last several days.

The events in California should have been the end of it. But it would have been a pipe dream to assume such a thing. If you said it once, you could say it again: For people like him, it would never be over. And that had never been more apparent than with the events that had occurred at the Harvardville Airport. There he had been faced with old demons. Demons that should have stayed locked away in his nightmares. Yet it was much more difficult when old nightmares become a new reality.

Like tearing open an old wound and pouring salt into it. Followed by gasoline and then set on fire. And finally followed by a swift kick to the jewels.

Raccoon city. A city that had been wiped off the map still had some lasting remnants. It was like a cancer that goes into remission only for it to relapse years later. Memories that he had tried to burry. The viral outbreak that had occurred at the airport and the events that followed was simply just a retelling of the events which had transpired six years back. Leon had been at the front lines of it all back then too. And despite the odds, he had prevailed. He proved that even the nightmares could be forced back to where they belonged. But it wasn't just himself.

Running into Claire Redfield had been more of a blessing than he could have expected. Even though they kept in touch after Raccoon, Leon never expected to run into her at the airport. And during a viral outbreak of all situations. He didn't know if he truly believed in fate, but Leon felt that something had thrown the two of them together in order to fight the good fight. They, along with Angela Miller of S.R.T., had given it their all, contained the outbreak, and brought those responsible to justice. All in all, Leon couldn't have asked for it any other way.

But that wasn't entirely true. Good people had lost their lives during the incident. A seemingly countless number of people, people with families and loved ones, had fallen prey to the T-virus. People who would no doubt just end up as a bunch of numbers for statistic purposes. There had also been the regrettable loss of Greg Glenn, Angela's partner. While over confident and somewhat vain in dealing with the outbreak, Glenn had ultimately sacrificed himself after being bitten by the undead. Staying behind and holding off the zombies had given Leon the time he needed to get the remaining survivors out of the airport.

He could have gotten more. Could have been given a better finish to the mission. He could have wanted a better outcome. But that was all in the past now. What was done was done. Nothing more to do than to honor the memories of the fallen by living on for them.

But in actuality, all Leon wanted right now was to go home. Just return to his loft apartment, to where his personal belongings were. But more importantly, it's where _she was_. The woman that he had put his life on the line for. The one he'd declared his love for. The lady in red. His goddess. His….

**III**

House wife. It was not a title she was entirely sure that she was ready to accept. Or if she wanted to accept it at all. For most of her life, she had been able to call the shots. She was able and willing to do what she wanted, when she wanted to do it. To hold titles that one would only see in films. To live the kind of life that most people only dreamed about.

But if that were the case, then was she not leading a life that most only dreamed about? A life of adventure and danger? The kind of experiences that seem larger than life itself? Globe trotting and gallivanting. Spying and stealing. Using her skills to further her own agenda. Never allowing anyone else to guide her or point her in a certain direction. Would all that really go to waste now?

That's the funny thing about fate. It never really allows things to play out as you plan them too. No one in this world is ever going to give you a map. You have to walk your own path. A path that is filled with twists and turns. Short cuts and long stretches of emptiness. You don't have to understand it, just accept it. Even if it takes the entire journey to do so.

As was the case, Ada Wong never thought she'd see herself 'settling down'. A few months ago, the thought would have been inconceivable. But now?

"_Now I'm not so sure"_ she thought to herself as she sat in the bathroom cradling the small white box.

It had been nearly a week since the events in California. Ada had been able to make her way home to Leon's apartment without any sort of trouble. Once she got there, she had no idea with how to preoccupy her time. Ada was fully aware that Leon had pulled a MacGyver and escaped from both certain death and the ambulance that had ferried him away from what had once been the headquarters of The Agency, her former employers. That was Leon for you, always coming out smelling like a rose.

So she was perfectly content with simply waiting for his eventual return to her.

"It's just going to take him longer" she had told herself one morning while re-taping her fractured ribs.

The pain had subsided considerably due to proper care and bed rest. Not to mention the added benefit of the antibiotics that Leon had left in his apartment. A gift from his previous trip to the hospital that he never needed. Now there only remained a dull pain. Almost like an uncomfortable pressure on her torso, like she'd slept funny for about a week.

Since coming back to Leon's apartment, Ada had kept herself busy while simultaneously staying near a phone just in case Leon found a way to contact her. Without a chance to gather her things from her home in California, she had taken what money she still had and went shopping, getting a decent supply of clothes for herself as well as some other essentials. After that, she familiarized herself with her new surroundings, taking it all in, tracing over everything with a fine toothed comb. Ada had to admit it, even though she was usually accustomed to lavish accommodations, Leon's apartment suited her. She had taken to sleeping in Leon's bed. It was being surrounded by his smell, his aura, which brought her some comfort. The whole loft apartment had a 'homey' feel to it. It was this feeling that she hung onto. It made her feel safe.

There was much to learn that she had not been able to get from either Leon or from previous information gleaned from various records and experiences. She had spent hours looking through old photo albums of Leon and his family. His father and his mother both seemed like loving people that had raised their son to be the man that he was today. From what she could guess, his desire to do the right thing and join law enforcement had come from his father and uncle. Both men were cops, or had been at some point in their lives.

The albums were littered with memories of Leon growing up an only child. His journeys playing little league, camping, first days of grade and high school, and outings with friends and family. Even his senior prom was pictured. Ada had chuckled at how uncomfortable he looked in his tux with some ditzy blonde hanging onto his arm. And she had marveled at how distinguished he looked in the pictures detailing him during his police academy years. All throughout, noticing how Leon always kept an air of confidence and courage in every photo he appeared in. But after the set of police academy photos, the rest of the pages were blank.

That's when the dark times came. Raccoon. Umbrella. Everything.

If the idea of Leon living a life that she never had made her heart heavy, it was the thought of that life being shattered back in 98 that made it sink completely. And at the time, she was partly to blame for that. But in some ways, it was also a blessing. Because the war on Umbrella had shaped him into the man that she loved. A man that she was willing to spend the rest of her life with.

Ada was normally a very patient woman. But several days without a call or some form of contact from Leon were beginning to get to her. In times of anticipation, our minds wander, filling in the gaps of reality with whatever our mind allows us to. All just coping mechanisms. And Ada didn't know what to think. She didn't know what was keeping Leon from returning home to her.

And then one morning, she saw it.

The news report had sent a chill down her spine, like ice water being flooded strait into her body. There had been an accident at the Harvardville Airport. Something about a plane crash, an outbreak. Some kind of virus. That's when she'd paid close attention to what little information the reporters had to offer. She'd heard the words and pieced everything together, like connecting the dots in one giant picture.

"_No, not again"_ she had told to herself.

It would have been Raccoon City all over again. That horrible blood and shit soaked nightmare that just wouldn't die. It had to keep rearing its ugly head again and again. Like tearing open a festering wound. It brought up old memories. Painful ones at that. As much as she had tried to distance herself from it all, to not give a shit what happened to anyone else as long as she got what she came for, the events in Raccoon had left a lasting impression on her. A great many people had died during the events in that city. Ada hadn't seen it all, of course. But what she had heard more than made up for it.

It was the screaming. The screaming stayed with her for many nights following the escape from the city. It was more horrible than actually viewing the acts of the monsters that had roamed the streets. It forced her imagination to fill in the missing pieces, like a jigsaw puzzle. And Ada's imagination was a darkened one. What was worse was when the screams started to fade out, one right after another until all that was left was silence. Silence and the occasional moan of the undead. It was experiences and memories like this that cut through her soul. But through out it all, there was some good that came out of it.

Leon.

When she had caught a glimpse of him on a news report, her heart had stopped in her chest. He was alive. Alive, but still far from home. And that was all that mattered. Once this thought had had time to process itself a tidal wave of questions had surged through her mind.

"_How did he get there?"_

"_What was he doing there?"_

"_Why him?"_

"_How is not in jail after what we did?"_

"_When will he come home to me?"_

"_Will he be safe?"_

It was not in Ada's nature to worry, but she yearned for the chance to hold Leon in her arms again and to be held by him as well. After six years of being separated from him, any amount of time with his absence was almost like torture. You don't find someone just to lose them again. And she finally had come to realize what it meant to love someone and have them love you back. To have someone give their life for you time and time again.

So in a way she was living the life that most dreamed about. That sort of fairy tale ending where you end up with the one you love.

She sighed as she closed the photo albums. Ada knew better. She knew Leon wouldn't allow her to simply just become a house wife, not after all they had gone through. Her skills were not something to be wasted. But it was the possibility of a _new title_ that she was in no way prepared for which frightened her the most.

"Mother", she said, cradling the home pregnancy test.

**III**

"Is this really where Leon lives?" asked Rani Chawla.

The young Indian girl pressed her tiny face against the glass, watching intently as the scenery passed her by. She wore a pair of jeans and a beige winter coat to protect her against the chilling weather. The jacket looked a bit puffy on her and made moving difficult for the little girl. It was almost comical.

The limo ferried Rani, her Aunt and Claire Redfield through the main street of the small working district where Leon lived. The two older women watched in passive amusement as the small child shifted her gaze from person, place and thing time and time again, soaking in the sights. Claire smiled at how cure she was and how readily she wanted to see everything. The girl was unwilling to let even the smallest of details escape her.

"Rani, dear" her aunt spoke to her. "Be careful. If you push any harder you're going to go right through that glass", she said, stifling a grin.

"But look at how pretty everything is!" Rani exclaimed, turning back to her aunt for a few seconds before pointing to the changing colors of the trees.

It was late August and the scenery had changed for the better. The streets were awash in a mix of reds, yellows, greens and browns as the fall season swept through the area. The vehicle made audible crunching sounds as it travelled over the fallen leaves which littered the cobblestone streets. Claire sat comfortably next to Rani's Aunt as she also took in the sight. Claire was also especially fond of the fall season. Even though it brought a chill to her, she couldn't help at how everything looked, at how there was such a balance between the summer and winter months. 'Cozy' would be an appropriate word to use in this instant. It brought memories of walks through parks, hot chocolate, apple picking, pumpkins and warm fires as well as Halloween and Thanksgiving. Riding her motorcycle through old, winding trails of forests and dirt. Times spent with old boyfriends or even with her brother Chris and extended family.

And by extended family, Claire thought of Jill, Barry, Rebecca, and even Carlos. But especially Chris. After their parents died, he was all she had left.

Claire leaned toward Rani's aunt and whispered, "Are you sure you're alright with this? I know you had your heart set on getting to work with Terra Save."

The older Indian woman took Claire's hand and gave it a loving pat.

"Yes, I'm just worried about Rani. Her nightmares are getting worse"

They both looked over to the girl, still transfixed on what was happening outside. She giggled at a store shop being set up for Halloween. The jack-o-lanterns and fake ghosts amused her greatly. It was sad really that in the days following the Harvardville incident that she was experiencing the after shocks of that event. Claire burned inside at the thought of Rani being exposed to a world that no child should ever be let into. It wasn't fair. It just wasn't fair at all.

"_Goddamn them all", _she thought. "_Goddamn Umbrella and everyone else who's involved in this. Bringing a child into this war. It's just unthinkable"_

"Are you alright dear?" Rani's Aunt asked Claire.

Like the woman had said, Rani had been going through a lot of sleepless nights. Going to bed only to wake up screaming hours later, crying for her parents, her Aunt, and even Claire. The attack on the airport had left her with some form of acute traumatic stress disorder. Her aunt was at wits ends with what to do to her. So Claire had suggested that she be taken to a psychologist and sleep specialist that she knew about. Coincidentally, the Doctor lived in the same area as Leon. Claire didn't want to bog the two of them down too much, and Rani's Aunt must have picked up on this.

"Our business will have to wait. My concern is for Rani to get better. That is all"

Claire didn't object at all as she pushed a lock of hair out of her face.

"Are you certain that you're friend will be alright with you staying with him for a few days?" she asked as Rani leapt into her lap.

"Yeah, Leon and I go way back" Claire reassured the woman. "It wouldn't be the first time I've stayed with him"

"He won't object to you dropping in unexpected, will he?" the older woman asked.

"No, not at all. We're practically family" Claire replied without missing a beat.

"He's a good man" the older woman remarked with a warm smile. She stroked her niece's hair and remarked to Claire, "He helped give Rani back to me"

Claire gave a small snorting laugh and said, "That's Leon for you. Always doing the right thing at his own expense", she sighed.

Rani looked over to Claire expectantly, "Do you like him?" she asked.

"What's that sweetheart?" Claire answered, not really paying attention to the little girl.

"Do you like him? Leon, I mean?"

"Rani!" her aunt said, somewhat startled. "Now what kind of question is that for you to be asking her?"

"I was just wondering. That's all" Rani said, looking at her feet.

Claire smiled and plucked the little girl off of her aunt's lap and setting her on her own.

"No sweetie, Leon's just a really, really good friend. We've been through a lot together"

Without missing a beat, the little girl asked, "You mean fighting monsters?"

Claire froze, her heart jumping in her throat. It was not the kind of question that she had expected out of the little girl. Her heart fell again as she thought back to what had happened to Rani. It was bad enough that she was exposed to the events at the airport. But more importantly was that the truth came out now. Everything that parents told their children were lies. In the world that they lived in now, there were monsters under the bed and in the closets. The good guys didn't always win. Bad things would happen to good people.

Life was not a Disney movie.

"Yes Rani. We fought a lot of monsters. We work hard to keep the world safe for people like you and your aunt. We want to make sure that you never have to have any bad dreams ever again"

Claire smiled as she gave Rani a big hug. But deep down, she knew differently.

"_I'm sorry sweetheart, but sometimes there are no happy endings. That's why we have to fight for them. I wish to God that it didn't have to be this way. I hoped that children like you never had to be exposed to the dark side of this world. I wish that you're childhood wasn't ripped from you"_

For a brief second, Claire's mind shifted to thoughts of days gone by and what she had lost. And with those days came several faces_. Her parents. Steve Burnside. Sherry Birkin_. Claire's heart ached badly at the thought. Goddamn Wesker and all the other monsters who had done this. Goddamn them to hell.

"That's good!" she said with a smile before getting off of Claire's lap and returning to the window to watch the scenery.

Even though kids are resilient, even if they bounce back, they still should never have to go through what Rani did.

"Will we get to meet Leon?" she asked, beaming at Claire and her aunt hopefully.

Their primary concern was getting her the help that she needed.

"We'll see sweetheart", Claire answered. "We'll see"

**Author's note: You wanted it, you got it. The sequel begins here. While I can't promise a 16 chapter thing like the first one, I can promise that there will be serious discussions and loose ends tide up as well as connections and answered questions linking my stories to the Degeneration film and RE4.**

**Also, I may have fudged some dates here and there. This story takes place in the later part of 04. Not long after RE4, my previous story, and Degeneration.**

**I'm pretty busy with school these days so just remain patient and the new chapters, will come.**

**In the mean time, check out my HUNK story. It should kill some time for you ******


	2. Breaking the Habit

"Are you sure you're going to be alright" Rani's Aunt asked Claire.

The limousine had pulled up outside of the apartment complex where Leon lived. Claire had made her way to the rear of the car where she was currently pulling her luggage out of the trunk. She had dressed for the weather. While not extremely cold, it was still plenty frigid for autumn. As a result, Claire had dressed accordingly. Her dark khaki pants where complemented by the long-sleeved black shirt she wore. And to round it all out was the white jacket that she had worn during the airport incident.

She had, of course, made sure the garment was washed and dry cleaner. The blood stains where now a fleeting memory.

_What had happened at the airport wasn't._

Claire closed the trunk of the limo, the cover making a dull 'thump' sound as it connected into place with the rest of the vehicle. She ran a hand through her hair, which she had tied back into a pony tail, before turning her attention to the older Indian woman.

Claire put her hands on the other woman's shoulders and said, "Hey, you don't have to worry about me. It's Rani who you should be looking after right now"

Both women turned their attention to the cab of the limo where Rani continued to keep herself occupied with a coloring book. Rani's Aunt looked back to Claire before stating, "I just feel bad about leaving you here. Are you certain he'll be alright with it?" she titled her head slightly to the building.

Claire followed the woman's gaze quickly before leaning on the back of the car.

"Yeah, this wouldn't be the first time that I dropped in on Leon unannounced. I think he's used to it by now", Claire said while crossing her arms. "I mean, you're taking Rani to a doctor here in this city. And Leon and I both said that we'd meet on more normal circumstances. Just think of it like a happy coincidence. Don't feel like you're abandoning me here. I'm a big girl you know. I can take care of myself" she finished with a smile.

Rani's Aunt took a few moments to process this before finally surrendering with a happy nod of her head.

"You're very persuasive you know that?" she told Redfield, almost like she was her own child.

"So I've been told. Just tell me you'll get her the help she needs. A girl her age doesn't need something like this following her around the rest of her life" Claire said, with a strong sense of concern.

"Yes, you're absolutely right the" she said giving Claire a hug before reaching into a pocket and producing a card and pen. "Here's the address of the doctor's office and the hotel that we'll be staying at if you need to contact me"

Claire took the card from Rani's Aunt and deposited it into her pocket. She then grabbed the collapsible handles of her suitcases and pulled them up, getting the bags onto the side walk.

Rani's Aunt turned to the car and called, "Rani, come say goodbye to Claire"

As if on cue, the little girl practically burst from the car and slammed into the pelvis of the young woman with an 'umph'. Claire was almost knocked over by the force of the little girl. She stooped to one knee in order to get down to the Rani's level.

"Promise me that you'll work with your aunt and the doctors alright?" Claire said, stroking the little girl's hair.

Rani smiled and said, "Don't worry Claire. I know that the monsters in my dreams aren't real. And the ones that are, you'll just shoot them!"

Claire was taken aback by her statement and exchanged a look of surprise and worry with her aunt.

"Yeeeeeah…." Claire said as she tried to mask the awkwardness of the situation. She exchanged a look with Rani's Aunt that said '_Where did that come from_?'

The older Indian woman had no answer.

Claire took a long look at Rani before thinking to herself. "_Jeez Redfield, what's the matter with you. What is it with this little girl? Why does she make such an impact on your life?"_

It was several seconds later that she realized what it was.

"_Sherry. She reminds me of Sherry. God, what did I get myself into?"_

Claire shook of the feelings of nostalgia_. _She gave Rani a hug before gathering her things and heading for the building. There was a brief pause as she looked up at the building, around where she knew Leon's loft apartment was. Some may have feelings from time to time. Little things that nag at us from time to time. Those little instances where there is something in the back of our minds. Instinct? Intuition? Or even a sixth sense. Whatever you want to call it, some people have ways of knowing when there is something completely off. And right now, Claire had a feeling that something was very wrong. She just didn't know what.

"Is there something wrong?" Rani's Aunt asked Claire, a slight look of concern spread on her face.

Claire shook her head slightly.

"No, it's nothing. I just spaced out for a moment. I'll give you a buzz if anything comes up", she said before giving Rani a slight pat on the back.

With that Rani and her aunt got back into the limousine and took off down the street, Rani waving from the backseat. Claire was left standing on the sidewalk for a few moments, letting her mind wander. Earlier, she had tried calling Leon both on his cell and home phone number, there had been no answer on either line. It was so very unlike him to not answer his calls. Or at least, that's what she was telling herself. For all Claire knew, Leon could have been waist deep in paper work or who knows what else.

She brushed the thought away and made her way to the front door of the apartment complex. Opening the door, Claire went inside and walked a few feet to the set of elevators. Pressing a call button, she waited for the car and got inside when it arrived. Soon, she was traveling up to Leon's floor. It would be good to catch up with him. This time under normal circumstances.

**III**

For much of her adult life, she had lived in a moderate degree of luxury. She had been used to it, thanks in most part to the money that she had made over the years. If one is good at something, then they should never do it for free. And over the years, Ada had discovered that she had a knack for espionage. Lying, infiltrating and stealing where skills that she had developed more out of necessity to further her own goals rather than those of others. It was just a shame that she had fallen in with the very people she was determined to stop.

Sometimes it is necessary to do things against your morals if it means taking down the bad guys in the long run.

But right now, it was all somewhat moot. Ada had begun to fashion herself a new life with Leon, here in his apartment. The accommodations weren't what she was used to, but strangely, she didn't mind. At this point, money wasn't a priority. What really mattered was that she continued her life with the man that she loved.

There was something about his apartment that made Ada feel safe. She didn't know if it was the cozy feeling that emanated from every corner, or if it was the fantastic view. Or was it that he had created a solid niche for himself in the world? Settled down? Something that she had never been able to do but had thought about for a long time. A place for her very own. Away from the trials and tribulations of the world.

In any instance, Ada found herself quite at home.

While she was used to carpeted floors, Ada had easily warmed to the hard wood floors of the apartment. They had a way of complimenting the brick walls of the living area. The walls themselves were an extension of the building itself. It was a wonder how the building remained insulated from the cold. Leon kept a few, various pieces of art that hung around his apartment as well as framed awards and diplomas. Most of them from his time in the police academy as well as time spent with the government. It all accentuated the living area in a respectable, decorous way.

What impressed her was the modest kitchen area that resided in the apartment. Several teak wooden cabinets held dish and glassware and where made to stand out by the lighting fixtures built into the ceiling of the area. Turned on, the lights would make the cabinets and wood work shimmer brilliantly with a bright finish. Of course there rested a chrome refrigerator as well as a dishwasher and stove within the kitchen nook. These were rounded out with a sink which was built right into the counter top. And speaking of counter tops, they were made of what had to be a sort of gray marble as was an island separating the nook from the rest of the apartment, partially built into the wall.

The kitchen led out into the dining room which was nothing more than a table and four chairs placed around it. In an odd choice, Leon had chosen a glass table for his eating area. An unlit, scented candle rested on the table as a center piece. In her opinion, a wooden table would have gone better with the floors. But something told her that Leon had not had much say in the piece of furniture. What he had been able to mold to his liking was his living room.

Ada found that the living room got a healthy amount of natural lighting, thanks entirely to the large picture window which overlooked the rest of the city. Leon used this to his advantage and had a few house plants in the apartment. While he had been away, Ada had watered them when she noticed that they were starting to droop. She found the bit of 'gardening' to be oddly therapeutic. The high ceiling housed a number of large wooden timbers, giving the apartment a bit of a rustic feel. The living room space was filled with a large comfortable sofa, that at one time or another, Leon had fallen asleep on. There were also two felt recliners on either side of the sofa along with a lamp to accompany them, which he used for whenever he had company over. A small coffee table sat before the furniture and ahead of it was his media center. Like the kitchen, the area was held within more teak wood cabinets. It also housed his stereo, DVD player, movies, music and large flat-screen TV. Leon kept a few photographs in the media center for sentimental value. Photos of himself at an earlier age, his family, old friends from the police academy all sat there.

She had been surprised at his choice of accommodations. With the salary Leon made, she knew he could have afforded something much more expensive. But the interesting thing about him was that he did not flaunt his money. In a humble move, Leon chose to live as close to the grain of normality as possible. Initially Ada had been astonished by this decision before coming to understand it.

Yes. Leon had indeed made a respectable dwelling for himself.

Ada didn't have much to worry about in this world. She had someone who loved her, a life that she was just getting ready to begin. A fresh start. She was fighting the good fight for real now. Leon had even helped take down her ex-employers thereby avenging her family somewhat. And while living with him, Ada didn't even let thoughts of Wesker bother her. No, she didn't have a single thing to worry about.

_But this_, this was something completely different. Now she was faced with taking a step in her life that she was in no way prepared for. And it scared the hell out of her.

Ada held the small white stick in her hand, waiting expectantly for the results. Her heart was going a mile a minute, hammering against her rib cage. Her entire focus was on the pregnancy test, everything else was being tuned out. Sometimes waiting for bad news was just as horrible as receiving it.

Slowly, but surely a small symbol started to appear. One solid white line.

Negative.

_**Ada Wong was not pregnant.**_

"Oh thank you merciful God" she breathed, the sigh of relief washing over her and making whatever stress she had been going through seemingly evaporate.

With the anxiety falling away from her Ada decided that the next logical thing to do would be to treat herself to a nice hot shower. After the emotional roller coaster she had just been through, she felt like she deserved it. She tossed the home pregnancy test in the waist basket near the toilet and turned on the water to the shower.

**III**

When Claire got to Leon's door, she did some searching for Leon's hide a key. When she turned up with nothing she was cautiously surprised. Not to mention perplexed, that he didn't answer the doorbell or knocks.

"I'm coming, I'm coming" a voice on the other side of the door finally answered.

Claire was taken aback. The voice was not Leon's, nor was it even male. It was a woman.

Had he found someone that he hadn't told her about? What had he been keeping from her?

Claire didn't have time to think further as the door opened and she was filled with blinding rage.

**III**

As she let the hot, steaming water cascade over her body, Ada let her mind wander. She lost herself in the trance that was interpersonal thought, the shower taking her to some far away state of mind.

She had done a lot to integrate herself into her new home. Familiarizing herself with her new surroundings wasn't much of a chore. She had done that far too much while staking out the place a week back. There were other things that Ada had done. Moving her clothes and personal items into Leon's room had been one of them. It was an act that she knew he wouldn't mind.

Share and share alike of course. After years of living alone, he was going to learn what it was like to share space. But she didn't dare open his mail or even use his computer. She had taken to depositing his mail in a small wooden basket in the kitchen. They hadn't worked so hard to repair their relationship for her to ruin it over little invasions of privacy.

Due to her ribs still being in a fair amount of pain, once Ada had gotten back home she had laid herself up for a few days whilst taking the antibiotics. She wasn't used to not doing anything for extended periods of time. But making the best of it all was something that she had found to be quite easy. Leon's DVD collection had provided her with a few hours of entertainment. Although she hadn't expected to see what she did.

You can tell a lot about a person based on what they choose to surround themselves with. It's funny how someone else's work can be used to define an individual. Whether it is film, literature, art or music, we all have a way of doing this. And Leon was no stranger to it.

Die Hard and Taxi Driver told her that all he wanted to do was the right thing. Office Space told her that he hated his job just like everyone else.

She had even enjoyed watching one film called 'The Professional'. It starred a young Natalie Portman.

But Sleepless in Seattle? What Women Want? Even Titanic? Half of Leon's movies where romance or romantic comedies.

"_Why Leon S. Kennedy. You really are a romantic at heart"_, she had thought with a smile one night while nestled comfortable on the couch watching films.

Of course, it wasn't the only thing that she had done. Ada had discovered some old photo albums and spent a few precious hours going through them. He had grown up an only child to two loving parents that had raised him well. Leon had a striking resemblance to his father more so than his mother. Ada had thumbed through his baby years, amused. She had seen him go through little league games, birthday parties, family outings, camping with relatives and high school. Ada had even laughed at his high school prom photos. Leon looked so uncomfortable in his tux and with some ditzy blonde hanging on his arm.

Memories. They were nice to have. The good ones that is. Soon after the photos of Leon in the police academy there were blank spaces. Ada knew that was when the dark times came. Raccoon and everything that followed. It was a horrible thought to realize how all the shit had invaded their lives to such a degree.

But all of this got tiresome fast. Cabin fever had set in quickly for Ada. So it was a relief when she woke up one morning to find her ribs weren't as bad as they had been in previous days. She had immediately taken advantage of Leon's work out area in his apartment. Ada had even hired someone to repair the punching bag that Leon had 'broken' during his period of short-lived post Plagas infection.

The added benefit of Leon's apartment was that he didn't live far from a vast and spacious park. It was at least four miles long and at least several miles wide, providing much recreation for the people in the area. It was a spectacular place with numerous open fields, baseball diamonds, football and soccer fields and bike paths. The paths themselves ranged from being out in the open to several paths which cut through heavily forested areas. No doubt there were people who used the areas for nature walks and private 'get aways'. Ada had loved how quiet and peaceful it all was considering it was in a city and bordering a major lake. Actually the lake complemented the park as one of the running paths ran along a water front. It was wonderful scenery for this time of year.

Ada had to admit it that Leon had good taste when it came to real-estate.

But all the good feelings had come to a screeching halt when certain thoughts had kept into her mind. On impulse, Ada had come back from a jog and stopped at a local pharmacy. She normally would never have been caught dead outside wearing sweat pants and a hoodie. But sometimes there are times where priorities need to be restructured.

Like when the possibility of pregnancy is present.

Luckily, the test had not been positive.

When her shower was over, Ada stepped out and heard the doorbell ringing, followed by several loud knocks. Hurriedly she got dressed in a pair of grey women's briefs and a matching tank top, the scar on her abdomen barely showed. The same could not be said of the gunshot scar on her right shoulder.

Ada was still hanging onto the grenade pin that Leon had given her back in California. While big and cumbersome, she didn't dare get rid of it. No matter how unorthodox of an engagement ring it was. It was lying on the bathroom. As she rushed out of the bath room, she scooped it up from the bathroom counter top and deposited it in a pocket.

The knocking was getting louder as she neared the door. Leon wouldn't knock. He had keys. It must have been someone else. Ada hoped that it wasn't someone that he knew from the government, a member of his family, or God forbid, that little girl that he had to babysit back in Spain. Explaining why she was in his apartment while he was not was a conversation she was not looking forward to having with anyone.

"I'm coming, I'm coming!" she called out, annoyed by the persistence of the person.

She was still drying her hair as she tossed a towel on the spiral staircase that led up to Leon's bedroom. In a few quick steps, Ada opened the door.

**III**

When the door opened, Claire completely lost focus of what was around her. When she saw the woman in front of her, her vision went completely red. Her blood boiled. She saw all the horrible and painful losses and things that had happened in her life. Raccoon City, Sherry Birkin, Steve Burnside. Then she saw the cause of all this. Claire saw Wesker. Wesker and _this woman._

Claire knew who the woman was that stood before her in Leon's apartment. She was Ada Wong.

She was a fucking dead woman.

"_Bitch"_ Claire hissed with anger, balling her fists.

"Oh shit" Ada said, with a slight arching of her head and rolling of her eyes.

She immediately closed the door, only for Claire to block it open with her knee. Claire then snapped her leg out in a kick, throwing the door open and sending Ada teetering back a few paces.

CRACK!

Pain shot through Ada's face as the redheaded woman hit her in the face, making her stumble back several more feet. She fought through the pain just in time to see Claire's leg flying at her. Ada blocked it, only to catch a nasty left hook.

"_Stupid. Ribs not fully healed. Making me slow. Sloppy"_ she thought, blocking a right hook.

Ada then grabbed the other woman by the arm and pivoted. She strained through the dull ache in her torso as she literally threw the redhead into the brick wall of the apartment. Her back collided with the pictures hanging there, the broken glass raining down on her as she fell to the ground. Claire shook off the attack and looked up to see Ada's leg coming down on her.

Still lying on the floor, Claire brought her hands up to block her face from being stomped in and countered with a swift kick to the Asian woman's pelvis. Ada cried out as she doubled over and her face was met with another kick. She fell backwards over the sofa in the living room, the force of her body literally crushing the coffee table that sat between it and the TV.

Ada let her hands close around the closest thing she could find, a broken off leg of the coffee table. As Claire was leaping over the couch, Ada brought down the improvised weapon in one swift motion. She connected right above Claire's knee; an audible 'thunk' sound of wood hitting bone resonated through the apartment. It sounded painful.

"AAAAAGGGGH!" Claire yelled as she dropped to one knee.

Still holding the table leg Ada swung at Claire in a wide arche, missing completely and allowing the redhead to grab her, plant a foot in her chest, and flip her over her head. Landing on her back, Ada lashed out like a snake, sweeping the woman's legs out from under her. Claire fell to her side with an 'umph' before rearing back and kicking Ada in the face.

"_Come on, you're not about to let her win are you? You're Ada Wong. Who is she to think that she can best you?" _Ada thought, blood starting to drizzle out of her nose a little.

Claire got to her feet and took up a fighting stance, trying to clear the distance between the two of them as Ada backed away and opened more space for them. Claire kicked out again several times before throwing a few punches at the Asian woman. Every attack was either dodged or blocked as Ada started to pick up steam. After a few punches Ada grabbed Claire, catching her by surprise and head butted her. Dazed, her vision blacking out for a few seconds, Claire was surprised when the other woman grabbed her again, and with some difficulty, hip tossed her into Leon's dining table.

CRASSSSSSSSSSSH

The force of the throw and the weight of her body caused the glass to instantly shatter.

"_Ugh" _Claire thought, "_Now I'm gonna be picking glass shards out of my hair for a week"_

She got up in time to see Ada run, jump and slide over the island in the kitchen. Seconds later, something sailed through the air with alarming accuracy. Claire's eyes went wide as she barely moved her head to the right, a meat cleaver flying past her head. She couldn't be one hundred percent, but she could swear that she saw a few hair fragments fall from her head. A 'thunk' sound rang out behind her as the cleaver became embedded in the wood frame of the picture window.

"_Bit of advice. Try using knives next time. Works better for close encounters" _

Ada remembered Leon's advice as she grabbed a butcher knife and hurled it at Claire.

In the blink of an eye, the other woman grabbed a photo album from a nearby shelf and held it up to her face for protection. A fraction of a second later and the butcher knife went through the entire book, stopping centimeters from her eye.

"_Holy shit"_ Claire's mind screamed as she pried the instrument from photo album and squared off with Ada, holding a third knife.

With both of them battered, bloody and holding edged weapons, they faced each other. All they could do was move in little semi circles, ready to see what the other one would do. Hate burned in Claire's eyes. Calculated wavering flowed through Ada's. Anger could be a good thing. But too much of it made people slow and easy to read. This is why Ada chose to keep a level head.

She wasn't fighting to impress. Ada was fighting to keep herself from ending up in the hospital.

Claire came at her with a stabbing motion. Ada ducked sideways and grabbed her wrist, making sure Claire's knife hand wasn't fully in her control. With her free hand, Ada went to elbow Claire in the head. In a bizarre act of symmetry, this blow was halted as well. With the two of them at a stalemate, Claire kicked Ada's legs out from under her and both women went to the ground, knives at each other's throats.

"Gonna….kill…you!" Claire burned through gritted teeth.

They stayed there for a few moment Claire on top of Ada, straining to put a knife her throat. It wasn't for everything they were doing, they would have heard the shoes on the hardwood floor, crunching on broken glass.

"I leave home for a few days and look what happens" a voice said with a dejected sigh.

Claire and Ada stopped what they were doing to look towards the source of the noise, recognizing it instantly.

There, standing above them with a bouquet of roses in one hand and a pizza in the other was Leon. An exasperated look on his face.

**Author's note:**

**This chapter would have been up sooner if my computer hadn't been hit with a virus and I hadn't had to completely wipe the hard drive and reinstall everything. So basically I had to redo this chapter from scrap. But, whatever.**

**And yes, I know that it takes longer than a week for fractures to heal. So suspend some disbelief here.**

**And how do you like that? Ada isn't pregnant. Man do I love sucker punching my audience.**


	3. Alright

One never stops to think about all the pieces that make up something. The cells that make up the human body. Bits in a jigsaw puzzle. The ingredients in a baked good. Whether it is how so many insignificant people fit into the grand scheme of the universe. Or how the lives of those people can become so complex and even inter tangled. Lives that touch so many others. From the most minute of instances to the most grand. The twists and turns. Past histories, shared lineages and experiences.

Yes, there are many pieces that make up things. Even lives. And at times, glass dining room tables.

Tables, very much like the one that Leon had just finished collecting and depositing into a reinforced trash bag. In retrospect, he was glad that he had not invested the money in carpeting his apartment. It would have made the clean up a much bigger pain in the ass than it had to be. Not to mention the fact that Leon didn't particularly want to be finding little shards of glass in his feet for the next several weeks. The coffee table had been easy enough to dispose of as well, as were the broken frames from his walls. Even the hole in the wall where Ada had thrown a meat cleaver would be easily sealed up.

It was funny, everything in the apartment was a cinch to either repair or replace. The people, on the other hand, were an entirely different matter.

Ada and Claire had been sitting on opposite sides of Leon's couch in uncomfortable silence for some time while they waited for him to finish up cleaning. Each of them were nursing various wounds. Ada had just removed the wads of tissue from her nostrils once she was satisfied that her nose had stopped bleeding. She was also taking advantage of an ice pack to her face and ribs. Claire's knee had swelled up something awful where Ada had struck her with the table leg. She was also using an ice pack at the site and on her face where she had been head butted. It wasn't bad, but there was still a noticeable bruise above her left eye. It stung to touch.

Claire had been able to pick most of the glass out of her hair and clothes. But her back still ached. One doesn't get hip tossed into a glass table and expect to just walk away from it intact.

"I'm all out of ice packs", Leon said as he walked toward the two women sitting on the couch. "Here, use this", he told Claire, slapping a bag of frozen vegetables against her swollen neck. She responded with an 'ow' before hissing in pain for four seconds.

The roses that Leon brought for Ada lay on the kitchen counter, along with the knives that the women had been using. He walked back to the island and helped himself to a slice of now lukewarm pizza that either women had not bothered touching. They were too transfixed on each other. While they didn't stare down the other they had still been eyeing each other through their peripheral vision. Ada didn't have much to worry about. She knew Leon would keep the other woman on a thin leash. Claire was an entirely different story. She was still incredibly pissed. But at the moment, she didn't know who to be angrier at. At the woman who she knew to be in bed with the man who had caused so much pain in her life. Or the man who had been a friend to her for more than six years and had allowed the said woman into his apartment.

Leon sighed, pulling up a chair and sitting down across from Ada and Claire. He felt like he was about to have one of those uncomfortable talks like that a parent has with their children. The kind that most are familiar with. The ones that usually end in screaming, crying and perhaps even violence. And the women had had a good jump on _that _already.

He was no fool. Leon knew that he wasn't totally exempt from the proceedings. He was just as much on trial here as Ada and Claire were.

"Alright," Leon said, taking a bite of pizza and chewing, "Who wants to start?"

There was more tense silence, filling the entire apartment with the white noise of dead space. The only sounds that could be heard where a distant car horn or bird calls. Leon didn't know what to expect. No one wanted to open their mouths first. To do so would be an invitation to be ripped apart limb from limb. Slowly.

He looked at Ada and Claire, watching their eyes dart between him and each other. There was so much tension in the air that you could empty an entire clip into it and there would still be enough to suffocate you. But eventually, after seconds which seemed like days, Claire opened her mouth, asking the obvious.

"What is _she_ doing here?" she asked. The word 'she' sounded so much like it could be replaced with the worst of expletives.

Claire watched as Leon and Ada looked at each other, wondering who would be most suited to answer.

Leon finished the pizza slice and said, "She came to me for help".

It wasn't a total lie. But Leon thought it would be the most appropriate answer at the moment. He didn't want to feed the fire anymore, so to speak.

Claire raised an eyebrow, a nonverbal scoff, "And by 'help' you mean shacking up in your home? I mean, Jesus, do you even know who this woman is? Who she works for?"

"And how is it that you're even familiar with Ada, Claire?" Leon inquired.

They had never really talked about the details of their adventure in Raccoon City. Most of it they had shared with each other, but Leon still had some secrets he wanted to keep. Things that were better left unsaid so that they would be his memories to deal with.

Claire gave him a 'Do you think I'm stupid?' look before stating, "Come on Leon, Raccoon was six years back. A lot happened back then. A lot. And a lot of people had their hands in what went down there", Claire gave Ada a dirty look, "I'm not the only person who did some digging, as I'm sure you did. I know who she is. I know her reputation. And I know who her employer is"

"She works for Wesker!" Claire pointed accusingly at the Asian women who sat stoically next to her, not even flinching.

Ada sat with a look of indifference on her face. More annoyed than anything, she didn't particularly like being put on trial, especially when the redheaded woman didn't have all her facts strait.

"Worked", she interjected.

Claire looked to Leon for confirmation of the statement, not totally believing it. Why should she?

"It's true, she's not working for Wesker anymore Claire", Leon said, leaning forward and placing his forearms in his lap.

"Oh, well that changes everything now! Doesn't it?" Claire exclaimed, throwing up her arms before quickly putting them back down, a sharp stab of pain travelling down her back.

Leon didn't say anything for a few moments. He tried to plan his next move carefully. Pick the right combination of words so as not to make Claire boil over in rage.

"A lot's happened in the last few weeks. Much of it would take a couple hours to tell you", he told Claire, looking her dead in the face.

"Then give me the abridged version" she said, without hesitating.

Leon ran his hands through his hair and sighed, looking over to Ada for help. She uncrossed her arms and tilted her head to the side, giving a small shrug. What use was there in keeping secrets now? Might as well go all out. Leon nodded in agreement and cracked his neck.

"All right, it's like this" he said.

Over the next several minutes, Leon told Claire about his little escapade in Spain. He told her about how the zombies where the things of the past. The incident at the airport was a bad case of déjà vu and nothing more. No, there was something new on the table this time. The Plagas parasite was a very real threat. At the moment, there was no way of knowing how wide spread it was. Leon hoped that it was only sequestered to Spain. But ideas like that were the same as illegally trafficked weapons.

There were just too damn many of them.

But, it was a moot issue. Leon told her about saving Ashley. Explained about Saddler, Salazar, and even Jack Krauser. He told what their plans had been and what measures he had gone through to make sure that they did not come to fruition.

"Krauser was alive all this time?" Claire asked. She had a passing familiarity with Leon's old comrade.

Scratch that. Enemy. Well, ex-enemy now.

"He's not alive anymore" Ada added.

Leon was taken off guard by the statement. He broke away from his story to address Ada, not fully understanding.

"I put Krauser down", he told her. "I put a .357 slug in his head"

"Well then you didn't try very hard. Because he got back up", Ada said, removing a now warm ice pack from her body.

"What did you do?" Leon asked, knowing immediately that Ada had had a run in with Krauser.

"I put him _back_ _down_" she said.

Leon stood up and shook his head, "God, doesn't anyone stay dead anymore?" He put his hands on his head and stretched.

It was becoming a bad habit. As rare as it was, the occurrence of someone coming back from the dead with super powers, a vendetta and a stick up their ass was starting to get old fast. But it was something to dwell on later. Leon got back with his tale. He told Claire about Luis Serra, and how much of a help he had been to him as well as the sacrifice the man had made. There wasn't much else to tell after that.

"After that, I came home", Leon stated, mater-of-factly.

"Yeah, and you never returned my phone call. What happened there?" Claire asked, somewhat offended and holding her hands out in a 'what's up with that?' gesture.

"We went to California", Ada told Claire.

"California? What the hell's in California that you had to go all the way out there for?"

Leon and Ada glanced at each other as he sat back down, knowing they were going to catch hell for what they were about to say concerning their little 'vacation'.

"You know that building that the news has been going on about? The one that was destroyed?"

"Yes, there was a gas leak. Some kind of freak accident…" Claire paused as the pieces came together. "_Oh no. You didn't_"

"We had to", Ada told her. "They were my employers"

"So you offed your meal ticket. Good for you", Claire said with a mock clapping of her hands.

"It was that. Or let them play with Leon's insides", Ada said with an attitude.

"They wanted what was left of the Plagas in my blood", Leon added.

Claire held up a hand and waved it back and forth in small motions, wanting Leon to slow down.

"Wait, wait, wait. Just hold on for a second. You were infected!?" Claire declared, the revelation hitting her hard.

"Yes and no. I found a cure in Spain for Ashley and myself. What I came home with were residual effects that hadn't dissipated. Run off from the parasite that hadn't left my system". Leon shot a look to Ada. He knew that she was still concerned with his well being. "It's out of me now"

"And you were going to tell me about this when?" Claire asked.

"Gee Claire, I don't know? When would have been a good time for you, huh?" Leon asked, annoyed at the selfishness of the question. "When we were playing zombie-gauntlet-fun-hour in an airport? Or when Angela and I hung on for our lives while her mutant brother tried to drag us into a bottomless pit?"

"Angela?" Ada asked, curious and with a slight hint of jealously.

Leon raised a hand briefly to her and nodded. A way of saying 'Drop it, I'll tell you later'

Ada did so and addressed Claire, hoping to smoothing things over a bit. She put a hand to her head, closing her eyes and said, "I was deceived by my people. I played right into their hands and I never saw it coming. But that's behind us now"

She wasn't willing to go through all this again. Ada had atoned for what had happened in California, Spain and even Raccoon and had done so with good intentions. She wasn't going to apologize for it anymore after this point. Claire looked at Leon shaking her head slightly, attempting to find the words that eluded her.

"How is it that you two aren't in jail right now?"

Even Ada was curious about the circumstances regarding their actions and Leon's subsequent return home.

"That's all me", Leon said, with a slight raise of his hand. "Working for the government does have some benefits"

"Like?" Ada inquired, holding out a hand as if the information would fall into it. She was curious how he hadn't ended up in a cell, considering the records of their trip had been wiped.

"Turns out the government keep tabs on more than we know about. If anyone these days is even suspected of working with genetics, viruses or bioweapons then they have more bugs to worry about than an exterminator on a bad day. My people knew exactly what yours were up to Ada. They just didn't have enough evidence to mount a substantial investigation into them. Think of it like an arm's dealer that plays every loop hole in the law there is to continue running guns. So in a way, we took care of a thorn in our sides"

"So, we're off scot free?" Ada asked, both surprised and amused.

Leon shook his head in disagreement, "I didn't say that. The law still applies. But we aren't going to be doing any jail time. I'll just be doing a lot of favors for a lot of people", he told her before thinking, "_It's gonna be a busy ten months"_

"That still doesn't explain how you made it to the airport", Claire stated, tossing an icepack to the side.

"Claire, I'm a special agent that works with a secret service detail. Plus I had just blown up a metropolitan building. It's not that hard for the government to find me"

"How convenient", Claire snorted.

"I wouldn't call playing 'Put the bullet in the zombie's head' a convenient thing. I just wanted to go home. But even here I can't get any piece. I come home and find you two ready to stab each other"

It was true. All Leon wanted was to get home to Ada. It seemed that in the past several weeks he went from one trip to hell to another. Spain, California, the airport. And now he had to deal with 'the war at home' in a manner of speaking.

"And at no point did either of you think that it would be a good idea to sit down and talk out your differences like adults?"

"Well it's kind of hard to do that when I've got a butcher knife at my throat", Ada said, offhandedly.

Claire had been so fixed on Leon's story that she had almost forgotten the elephant in the room.

Ada.

She had had enough of the friendly chit chat. It was time to get some answers.

"Why is that bitch in your apartment Leon?" Claire asked.

"First of all, we can do without the derogatory remarks. I understand you're angry…"

"You're goddamn right I'm angry!" Claire exclaimed, giving him a light shove.

"Please calm down", Leon requested, putting a hand up to his eyes to shield them and knowing that she wouldn't submit to his request.

"Calm down!?" Claire asked, stunned, "Jesus Christ, Leon. Do you have any idea what this woman has done? Who she's rubbed elbows with? Who signed her paychecks? And you're willing to just forget about all of that because of what?"

"Claire you're being unreasonable",

It was a weak play. Leon was dancing around the topic. If he told her what was really going on between the two of them, then Claire would have a meltdown.

"HOW AM I BEING UNREASONABLE?" she yelled, jumping up from the couch and placing her hands on her chest. "NONE OF THIS MAKES ANY SENSE. WHY ARE YOU HELPING HER, TAKING HER SIDE IN THIS?"

Too late.

"Claire, what is this all about?"

"SHE WORKS FOR WESKER, LEON. AND WESKER TOOK THAT LITTLE GIRL FROM ME. GOD, I WAS ALL SHE HAD LEFT"

"_Great, now this is all coming to a head", _Leon thought, standing up to get to Claire's level.

"SHE KNOW'S WHERE HE'S KEEPING SHERRY! SHE KNOW'S WHERE THAT BASTERED'S HOLDING HER!"

"Sherry?" Ada asked, not recalling the name"

Leon answered her without taking his eyes off of Claire, "Birkin's daughter. She escaped Raccoon with us. Claire left her in the care of some government agents so she could look for her brother. When she came back, Sherry was gone. Even I didn't know where she went. No one would tell me anything. _No one knew anything. _We all feared the worse"

He turned his focus back to Claire.

"Leon, she knows. I fucking know she does", she said, regaining a little composure, almost pleading with him.

Ada shook her head with sincerity, "Honestly, I don't know where she is or even if Wesker has her. It never came up when I was work…"

"LIAR!" Claire screamed, her voice trembling somewhat.

That's when Claire noticed Ada playing with something in her hands. It was a circular object made of metal with another smaller piece hanging off of it. Claire watched absently as the Asian woman worked it around her fingers. That's when she realized what it was.

"Why do you have a grenade pin?"

"Leon gave the ring to me" Ada answered, without missing a beat.

"Why the in the hell would he…." Claire asked before breaking off suddenly into thought.

That's when the gears in Claire's head started turning. The woman who she was so infuriated with was living in her best friend's apartment. And he had shown her no such animosity since he'd walked in the door. And now she was playing with a grenade pin. A pin that had been given to her by Leon, it was almost like it was a…

"No. Please tell me this…isn't what I think it is" Claire said, horrified and sick.

Leon wasn't ashamed of his actions. Nor did he regret them. But this revelation was happening at a much faster pace than he had originally intended. He knew that Claire wasn't going to be happy so he had wanted to soften the blow the next time they met. Now, the 'softening blow' was turning into a 'swan dive into concrete'

"Ada and I are…engaged Claire", he told her, looking at Ada.

The moment Leon said those words; he wished that he could take them back. Claire's expression just about killed him. It was scary. She didn't show any emotion. She didn't say anything. All that happened was that she got really quiet and had a look on her face like someone had just told her entire family had just died in a freak accident, then dug up and had their graves defiled. It was shock. Then Claire started shaking her head in denial. Ada and Leon exchanged a look as Claire started backing away slowly, towards the door.

She felt ill as she addressed the two other people in the room, tears welling up in her eyes "I…I don't want to know… this. I don't want to know any of this!"

And with that, she ran from the apartment.

"CLAIRE!" Leon said, holding out an arm as if to stop her.

That's when he felt Ada gently grab his other arm.

"Leon…" she was at a loss for words.

He wasn't.

"Ada, I love you. I don't regret asking you to marry me. But please understand that we've all lost so much over the years. And I am not going to lose her. Not over something like this"

Ada remained quiet for a few moments. Leon had completely misread her.

"I was going to say, stop and think about what you want to say. So you don't hurt her anymore than she already is"

"_Wow, this coming from Ada Wong. What is the world coming to?" _Leon thought as he embraced the Asian woman, taking in her lovely smell. God, he'd missed her. Any time away from her was torture.

"I don't disserve you", he said playfully before giving her a quick, passionate kiss. "You'll be here when I get back right?" he asked, grabbing his new jacket.

Ada nodded with a smile.

"I'm still holding on" she said, brushing a loose mass of hair out of his face.

"Always?" Leon asked.

"Always" She confirmed.

With a quick smile, Leon ran for the door, hoping to catch up to Claire and make some form of amends.

**III**

Claire sat on the end of the wooden pier that overlooked the lake, adjacent to the park near Leon's apartment. The sun had just touched the horizon as she stared into the water. It rippled, distorting her reflection. In a weird way it mirrored how Claire's life felt at the moment. Nothing made sense anymore. Up was down. Black was white. Her entire world had been torn asunder in a few, horrible moments. She wasn't expecting this, any of it. She just wanted to spend some time with an old friend. Instead she got a total fuck-jamboree for her troubles.

Being confused is a terrible feeling. But being confused and hurt, when your life takes a nose dive, is an entirely different matter. She felt like her entire life had just gone into the shitter.

Claire had spent time with Leon out on this pier before. Trading stories over coffee or sandwiches and trying to see where their lives had been and where they were going. You don't go through hell with someone and never see them again. Experiences like Raccoon City are like bonds that keep people connected for the rest of their lives.

She wasn't surprised when she heard the wood creak behind her only to stop a few feet away. Claire didn't even have to turn her head to know that Leon was behind her. He didn't say anything for a few moments, he didn't know how. But then the words came to him.

"When did you choose to work with Terra Save? I thought you were with the Feds?"

"I got tired of jockeying a desk. When Terra Save came along, I saw it as an opportunity to get out and actually do some good"

"Right", Leon said, shoving his hands in his pockets. "I feel I owe you an apology"

Claire sighed as the last of her tears dried up. For the moment at least.

"How could you do this to me? After everything we've been through. After, Jesus, I don't know. All of it"

"I don't know how to answer that. I want to say that you're not being entirely fair here Claire. But then that would make me a hypocrite, wouldn't it?"

Claire craned her neck to look at him, "Just answer me this Leon. _Why_? Why her. Why that bitch in the red dress? You knew about her, I knew about her. We all fucking knew. And you go and pull a move like this?"

Ada had worked for Wesker. Even if she had had ulterior motives it was still guilt by association.

Leon sat down on the pier next to Claire.

"I might as well tell you the whole story", he said, letting his legs dangle over the edge. "When we were in Raccoon City, holed up in the police station, I met Ada Wong"

"Yeah, we've been over that before. But every time I asked you about her, you'd changed the subject or make up same lame excuse to avoid it altogether", Claire said, leaning forward, depressed.

"Truth of the matter is…back then, I'd thought I lost her", Leon said, pointing behind himself with his thumb.

"Lost her?" Claire asked, stunned. "Leon, this woman got you shot. She lied to you. She was a spy working for Wesker to get to the G-virus. Hell, she probably succeeded"

"I wouldn't know about that. Don't really care at this point either", he said without conviction.

"Then what is it. You thought you lost her? So what?"

"The thing is…I don't know, over the course of that night…through all that hell, I think we found something in each other. We met, we worked together to make it out alive. Sure she was a difficult woman to deal with at the time. That's just who she was. But I didn't care. I don't know if it's because I was just some rookie cop with a messiah complex at the time or what. All I know is that I didn't want anything bad to happen to her. And when she was injured by Birkin, God, it just about killed me"

"And then what?" Claire asked, transfixed.

"And then, I was just about to get out of that lab complex. I tried to find Ada, where I left her in a storage room to heal up. She was gone, but not really. It was more like she was waiting for me. There. On that catwalk in the underground lab"

Leon stared off into space for awhile, reminiscing. This was one of those painful memories that one tries to burry. Deep.

"She pointed a gun at me, wanting the G virus sample I had found and that she'd been sent to find. Let me tell you, it hurts a lot more when someone has the guts to stab you in the front. At the time, I didn't believe any of it. Didn't want to. What Annette had told me or what was happening in front of my eyes. Just about everything that I had come to know in those last few hours had been a lie"

Claire sighed and looked at him, searching for more information, "And how did that make you feel?"

"It felt like…my heart had been ripped out. But I didn't want it to end there. I wanted to reach out to her. To tell her that it was all okay. That she still had a choice. But fate's a real bitch sometimes. Because it took choice right out of the equation when Annette shot Ada in the back. And then Ada…teetered over the side of the railing. Right then, in that very second, I knew I had to do something or else I would lose her forever. I grabbed her hand, begged her to hold on. But then…."

The memory was still painful for him, and Claire was very perceptive of this. She watched as he tried to find the composure to go on. He looked down at his hands.

"I lost her. I lost my hold on her and she fell away from me… into the blackness", he said, picking up a stone from the pier and absently dropping it into the water. It hit the water with a 'plop' and disappeared amongst the ripples.

Leon turned to Claire, "I love her Claire. Right now and back then. Even after everything, I still loved her. And she loves me"

"But that's crazy Leon", she protested.

"Is it?" he challenged. "I don't think it's all romance movies and sappy stories. I really do think love can bloom anywhere. Hell, even on a battle field. And you should know, in the few hours that we spent together in Raccoon…we loved a lifetimes worth.

That made Claire stop and think for a few moments. She had no idea what he had gone through until right now. What else had he been unwilling to share with her? What other baggage did he carry?

"And what about the G virus sample you told me you had?" she asked.

"I tossed it. I just didn't give a shit anymore. It wasn't worth it. But it didn't end there. Not for another six years", he sighed.

"What do you mean?"

"Until recently, every night for the past six years I've been playing that same event over and over in my nightmares. I have Ada, and then she falls. And then I wake up in the middle of the night screaming for her"

Claire put a hand to her mouth, understanding and trying to fight back the tears she felt for Leon's pain. "God, why didn't you ever tell me about any of this?"

"Because it wasn't your problem. It was my burden to carry and I wanted to keep it that way. Plus after we found out that she was still alive, I didn't want to bring it up because…well because I figured you'd lose your shit"

He looked away from her as he tried to find a way to mask the old memory. They didn't say anything for awhile. Claire now knew what Leon had gone through, what he kept from her and why. Did he want to spare her from his pain? Or spare himself?

"Jesus Leon… if I had known. If you'd only told me you were going through that for the past six years…"

He waved her off. It was a nonissue right now. He wasn't having nightmares anymore and he had Ada back in his life. He'd be making up for those past years now.

"Ada's always been a part of me I couldn't let go of. She's not the person she once was. I don't expect you to believe me Claire. I just think you should understand. Because this isn't about me loving her is it? All this is really about is you and that little girl from way back when. I know you're angry, but Ada is telling the truth. She doesn't know where Sherry is"

Claire nodded. She still didn't entirely agree with his actions or choices. And was no way ready to accept them fully. But she appreciated how he had finally trusted her enough to confide in her after all these years. Claire stood up and Leon rose with her.

"I saw how you were with that little girl in the airport…Rani, right? That's what this is really all about. Isn't it?"

Claire nodded, wiping away some tears before turning to Leon.

"She reminded me of Sherry so much. God, I…I lost Sherry, Leon. Lost her. After she had lost everything in her life. Her mother. Her father. Forced to go through a hell that no child ever should. Fuck, I was all she had left. It was my job to protect her. And what did I do? Dropped her the first chance I could so I could go off and do my own thing"

"That's not true", Leon said, putting his hands on her shoulders. "You were protecting her. You still had to find Chris and there was no way that you were going to bring a child into that search. Claire, you did the right thing by leaving her with those men. How could you have known that Wesker probably had men on the inside? None of us could have seen that coming"

He made her look at him, putting a hand under her chin, "That. Wasn't. You're. Fault. Understand me?"

He pulled her in close for a hug and Claire embraced him tightly. She was such a mix of emotions at this point that all she wanted was an anchor. What more could you ask for from Leon S. Kennedy?

"Not like some of the other things that _were_ my fault"

"What do you mean?", she asked breaking away.

Leon turned to look at the setting sun. The star had changed from its usual bright yellow into a beautiful red orb in the sky, playing with the clouds to create an otherworldly hue. Leon used it to reflect.

"There was one more survivor in that police station that night. Black guy, Marvin something"

"Branagh!" Claire said with surprise. She knew the man well. The times that she had visited Chris, Marvin had always welcomed her to the police station in kindness. He was a good person and had almost been as close as family.

Then Claire got quiet, knowing something bad had happened to the man, "_What did you do_?"

"I came across Marvin just as I got to the police station. He told me everything that had happened. How nobody believed your brother or Jill or any of the others about the mansion incident. How Umbrella had covered everything up until it spilled into the city. Then he gave me a key card and forced me at gunpoint to leave him. He was hurt pretty bad, but I wanted to come back for him later"

"And did you?" Claire wondered.

Leon nodded and paused long and hard before continuing.

"Couple hours later, I found another way into the room where Marvin was. He had locked the first door behind me earlier. By the time I found him again, he had made his way into an office for safety"

Claire knew the story was going to take a bad turn.

"He had gotten bit, Claire. I saw him get back up and turn, right in front of my eyes"

"Oh…God…" Claire stuttered, choking back tears for the officer. She hadn't heard from him after Raccoon was nuked. But she had never imagined that the officer would have turned into…one of _them_. "What happened next?"

Leon sighed and said, "I put a Remington to the man's head and pulled the trigger. He deserved that much. He didn't deserve to be walking around without a soul"

They both got quiet. Neither of them wanted to say much. All they could do was stop and think about how messed up their lives had been.

Leon added, "We've been fighting for a long time. And we've all lost, so very much. I think it's important that we hold onto what we still have. And I promise you that we'll find Sherry. Promise"

Claire nodded and suddenly felt very tired. "God, I feel like I'm being crushed", she said, stretching.

Leon smiled, "Welcome to my world. Let's go back home. Okay?"

**III**

After Claire had walked out, Ada decided that she needed to clear her head. It was late in the afternoon, but a walk would do her some good. She cleaned herself up some before she threw on a pair of tight fitting jeans, one of Leon's t-shirts and her jacket. The cool autumn air was only slightly biting. It felt good in a strange way. She walked up and down the boulevard, people watching and letting her mind wander.

It was strange how a person's actions can come back to them after so many years. How things ripple and how lives can be touched by a simple action. Telling a lie, making one choice over the other, pulling a trigger.

Karma could have been the word for it.

Whatever it was, she hoped that Leon would set things straight. She wasn't particularly ready to have another conversation with Claire at the moment. Right now was a cool down period. A time to blow off some steam and think.

"_Me time"_ she thought, instantly sick of the words.

She had had far enough of that already. Now, she just wanted Leon.

Ada sighed as she sat down on an empty park bench and watched people and cars pass her by. She even nodded once or twice to people who silently bid her good day. It was remarkable how crowded it was at this time of day and during this time of year. She had to hand it to Leon, he had chosen some prime real estate. And many others had done the same.

So many people. So many were alive because of actions that she or someone else had taken to ensure their continued existence. And no one ever recognized it. No one ever congratulated her or said thank you. But maybe that's how this new life was supposed to play out. Normal people weren't supposed to know the details. The grim ones.

Ada tilted her head back and exhaled, looking at the late afternoon sky. She then let her head fall forward as she brushed her silky raven hair out of her face, somewhat amused by the circumstances of her life. She then turned her attention back to the crowd. The people passed her by and she watched them. Watched as they...

Wekser.

Ada's heart froze in her chest and dread consumed her as she saw the man in the crowd, staring back at her, the people seemingly oblivious to his presence. He was clad in all black, as usual. His normal business jacket replaced by a long black trench coat. He…

No, she was just seeing things. The day's events where making her mind play tricks on her. Ada shook her head. She looked back up into the crowd of people, and he was gone. Just a figment of her imagination. Wesker was miles away. Not here right now.

"I'm starting to lose it", she chuckled to herself, standing up.

"I would say that you are" came a voice from behind her.

It was a voice that she knew all too well. A sound that was smooth like silk, wrapped around the growl of a devil. A voice that was both pleasurable and haunting at the same time. Like a man that wanted to be your friend but was someone you instinctively want to run from. Ada tried to compose herself as she turned around. Standing there behind her was _that man_. A man who she thought was out of her life for good. A man who smiled an evil smile.

Albert Wesker.

**Author's note: **

**I know I said Claire was working with the FBI in my last story. Then Degeneration came out. So this is my way of doing some 'retconning'**

**The whole 'Sherry thing' is something that I'm going by based on the 'Wesker's Report Documentary'. Unless something else comes along that changes her fate(i.e. Resident Evil: Darkside Chronicles), I'm sticking with this.**


	4. Falling Down

"So this is going to sound like a stupid question. But are we cool?"

'_Are we cool?'_ How could she even validate that with an answer? After everything that had been said and done in the past few hours, Claire had no idea if she was ready to 'be cool'. One would think, that after all the life changing experiences in her life; Raccoon, Rockfort, even the airport incidence a week ago, Claire could handle anything. Anything the world could throw at her could be faced with a stiff upper lip and some guts. But as odd as it sounds, it's always what's closest to home that hits a person the hardest. Nothing could have prepared Claire for the day's events. And now Leon wanted to know if things between them were 'cool'. You don't just carpet bomb someone emotionally and expect them to be alright with you. Not after something like what had happened.

Claire felt like she was being pulled in every available direction that existed. And no direction felt right. She was still in no way ready to sit down and 'play nice' with Ada. Claire trusted the Asian woman about as far she could throw her.

But this was Leon standing beside her. She'd known him for the past six years of their lives. Hell, he was practically family. Claire still held anger toward him regarding the situation that he'd made for himself. It was the anger that came from being faced with something that you don't agree with and knowing there is no way to change it. Like a child becoming an adult.

It seemed fruitless to quarrel with him any longer. His mind had been made up and he obviously wasn't going to give Ada the boot just because Claire didn't approve of their relationship. And Leon had made an effort to make her understand where he was coming from. How could she possibly expect to fight with him on the subject any longer?

"Yeah, we're cool" Claire paused, not entirely sure that she believed herself. "For now at least"

She stared down at the sidewalk and crossed her arms. It was more for warmth due to the encroaching night than a sign of her disdain towards her friend.

"I figured as much", Leon said, shoving his hands in his jacket pocket and looking briefly at the sky before sighing.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Claire inquired, cocking an eyebrow.

"It means that I know you're still not comfortable with me and Ada. I wasn't born yesterday Claire. Your attitude isn't going to miraculously change just because I clicked my fingers and fed you a story. But can you at least promise me you won't do anything regrettable?"

"Like what?" she asked, shrugging her shoulders with her arms still crossed.

"Well, for starters, how about not mentioning any of this to your brother. At least not for awhile" Leon requested.

He sounded so tired. It was a tone of his voice that she hadn't heard since the morning after they had escaped Raccoon city

They both stopped in the middle of the sidewalk while people continued to pass them by. Claire offered a hand to Leon, somewhat bemused. She started, "What makes you think that Chris would…"

"Oh come on Claire", Leon interrupted, like she thought he was stupid. "Blood, bruises? A knife fight? If this is the kind of reaction you", he pointed a finger at her, "have to someone who used to work for Wesker, just imagine what would happen if Chris caught wind of this"

Claire closed her eyes and gave her head a quick shake of denial.

"I really don't think he'd do anything extreme", she said sheepishly while brushing some stray strands of hair out her face and back behind her ears.

Leon tilted his neck a few centimeters to the right and gave her an 'are you serious' look, "Claire, I've spent enough time around Chris to know that he's got a temper. If he found out Ada and I were engaged, he'd break every traffic law in the country just to get here. With one hand on the wheel and a fully loaded gun in the other"

There was a period of awkward silence as Claire digested the absurdity of his statement.

"Am I right?" he asked, expecting the answer.

"A half loaded gun maybe", Claire said with a slight smile. "But I see where you're coming from. It's just…this is all happening so fast. I'm still trying to digest it, I guess" she said, putting a hand to her forehead and closing her eyes.

"Yeah, that's how it is for us. You'd think we'd be used to it", he said, leaning against a lamp post.

Claire turned away from him and stared at a nearby gazebo, "I…just…I don't know if I can accept this all the way Leon"

He offered a hand outward to her, "What do you want me to say? Sometimes these things just…happen. You can't help who you fall in love with", he paused and blushed slightly. "Sorry, that… sort of sounded like a Hallmark card"

"Nice to see you haven't lost your sense of humor", she said.

Claire broke off from the conversation as she remembered the echoes of the talk she'd had with him on the pier. Leon had mentioned nightmares. Nightmares that had never left him since the day they had escaped from the city that God had forsaken. Six years. How could Leon have lived with himself for that long? Six years of nothing but heartbreak, and loss, and sadness. Every night, waking up from one darkness only to find himself in another. Lost and scared, covered in his own sweat, screaming for that one person who made his life seem like it wasn't Hell. That makes things complete and makes the bad dreams go away.

Was Claire really that selfish that she wanted to take that away from him? Did she really want to send him back into the darkness? To make him choose between herself and Ada. After all the horror and losses in their lives, didn't Leon deserve some happiness?

Doesn't everyone?

Or is it that some people are just born with tragedy in their blood. That people like Claire don't get to be lucky. What was it that she was really concerned with? That Leon was in bed with a women Claire considered an enemy? Or that he had finally found what he was looking for in life and could hang onto it. Whereas Claire just kept getting things taken away.

Her parents, Sherry, hundreds upon thousands of lives she could have saved if only she had made slightly different choices with Terra Save.

_Steve._

There is only so much that we are willing to lose. Every person has a breaking point. A point that is only reached once we are finished being beat on, raped, and having what we love taken from us. Only so much pain that we can endure. What happens then? What occurs when we reach that point? Do you stop? Do you go on? How can you? What if you could go back in time, and take all those hours of pain and darkness and replace them with something better?

Leon snapped her out of her daze and said, "There's still a room available at my place. That is, if you feel comfortable with being a roommate with Ada and myself for a few days"

Share an apartment with Ada Wong. 'Comfortable' was not the word she would have chosen to describe her circumstances. She didn't like it one bit, but she had no justifiable reason for turning down Leon's offer. And, realistically, how many more opportunities was she going to have to spend time with her friend? Even if that meant acting out a very odd version of 'Three's Company'.

"Yeah, alright. I really didn't plan on bothering Rani's Aunt while she gets help for the girl"

Leon put an arm around his friend's shoulder and steered the both of them back towards his apartment.

Claire perked her head up, suddenly remembering something.

"By the way, were you really infected?"

**III**

Ada's heart seized. That cold feeling that one associates with fear grabbed her chest from the inside and squeezed tightly. Everything around them slowed down as she and Wesker stared back at each other. People on the sidewalk breezed by them by. Cars crawled past. The wind even picked up, if only slightly. Nothing about this seemed real. It was like she was caught in a fog and all around her was one giant ghost. Everything inside her screamed for her to run but Ada felt compelled to stay, knowing that running was useless. If she ran, he'd find her. He could kill her right now if he chose. She wanted to leave but her legs had turned to steel rods. And so Ada Wong stood her ground, masking fear with courage and hoped the façade would last.

Wesker. He stood there, smiling. In all the years she'd worked for him, Ada had never known Wesker to smile. But it wasn't a happy smile. It wasn't an evil smile either. And it was then that she realized what it was.

He was gloating. In some way, he had won. And he was rubbing it in her face. Ada knew that he would have been able to track her. And she was a fool to think that he wouldn't actually do it.

The only question was: What happens now?

Wesker wasn't stupid. Too much time had passed since Spain. He had to have known by now that Ada had severed ties with him, stabbing him in the back in the process. Not delivering the parasite to him, _the one that she had been specifically sent to retrieve_ would not sit well with him. Wesker was not one to look kindly upon failure. Betrayal would be even worse. Ada was playing this close to the edge. One wrong move and she would be done. She had to be smart. Ada wasn't going to let everything she'd fought for be for nothing.

_She was walking away from this today_.

Without missing a beat, Wesker said "Walk with me"

It was more of an order than anything else. Ada knew if she wanted to survive this she would oblige him. And so she fell into step beside the man who was more of a devil than anything else.

Neither of them talked for what seemed like forever. Normally, Ada would have welcomed the silence. It would have been a chance for peace or even just to enjoy another person's company. However, this was certainly not the case. Every minute that passed was like an eternity. Ever second that clicked by made her question whether or not she would continue to live. She wanted nothing more for this to be over and go home. But it wouldn't be that easy.

They walked through the throngs of people on the sidewalk, all along the business district. Ada wanted to stay in view of the public as much as possible. There was no way that he was stupid enough to try anything with witnesses around. Or so she hoped.

As Ada and Wesker moved down the sidewalk people would part out of their way. Like splitting of a body of water. One would think that it was just people making space. But it was more like the public felt what Wesker really was. And it scared the hell out of them.

Finally speaking, Wesker noted, "So, I see that you've managed to forge a new life for yourself. I must say that your choice of living arrangements leaves much to be desired. Honestly, I would have thought you would be more at home living in a high rise"

Ada didn't say anything. She simply let Wesker enjoy the sound of his own voice. When there was something to say, she'd make it known. There was no reason to play this quiet. She was between the proverbial rock and a hard place.

"I caught your performance in California on the news. Quite amusing to say the least. Tell me, is Robert Drake still using his son as a guinea pig. His company always had a slight glimmer of potential to it"

"He's dead", Ada said coolly, not even bothering to meet the man's gaze.

Wesker mused, "Hmm, pity. But I do suppose that leaves less competition for me to worry about now doesn't it?"

He crossed his arms behind his back, waiting for Ada to say something.

"I don't have it", she said, cutting to the chase.

"Have it? Now what could you be referring to?"

She didn't need to see his eyes through his sunglasses to know he was trying to stare her down, to look through her. Wesker was toying with her. It wasn't enough that he was trying to destroy her new life. He wanted to have some semblance of fun with her.

He truly was the bastard of bastards.

"I think we can drop the act now", Ada snapped, perturbed at having her emotions torn at.

The sooner she found out what he was here for, the better.

"Really? Now is that anyway to address your old employer?"

Ada rolled her eyes and pointed to him, "Spare me the pleasantries Wesker. You never were the sentimental type"

Wesker bobbed his head, raising his eyebrows in surprise. He was taken aback by the abruptness of her statement.

"Hmm, nice to see you're not the only one who's an open book"

They stopped and moved off to the side of the sidewalk, close to the display window of a clothing store. The store had since closed for the day, but the window was still somewhat lit. Various mannequins stared out through the window at Wesker and Ada. The lifeless masses of plastic were the only audience the two people had.

"I know you don't have 'it' Ms. Wong. The Plagas sample I sent you to retrieve was no doubt lost during your exploits in California. Sending me a false sample was somewhat _underhanded_ but not entirely unexpected. Which is why I arranged for a backup plan just in case"

"Backup?" she inquired.

"I've had a feeling for some time now that you were not a team player. You don't honestly believe I'd allow something as valuable as that little parasite to be lost on a gamble do you? No, I have resources. People I can contact to get what I want. _Men who will finish a mission above all else_", Wesker said, looking out towards the water front, seemingly reminiscing.

"No…" she breathed. Ada didn't even want to humor the thought.

"Yes, Ms. Wong. I do have a Plagas sample in my possession", Wesker confirmed.

Despite all their efforts Wesker still got what he wanted. It was starting to seem that no matter what anyone did evil would still prevail. Because evil, it seemed, was always one chess piece ahead. Wesker had played his cards remarkably well even before they had been dealt. He was a true master at planning ahead and covering all his bases.

And he was very, very slick about it.

It was silent between the two of them for some time while Ada tried to grasp her current situation. Wesker had what he wanted. What else could he gain from confronting or even killing her?

"So what happens now?" she asked, finally taking a breath for the first time in minutes and glaring at the man.

"Well, that's entirely up to you, now isn't it?"

Up to her? Ada's future was going to be determined by these next few minutes of conversation with a man who no doubt wanted her dead for her treachery.

"Really, I'm actually disappointed in myself", he said, placing a hand to his temple before letting it drop to his side. "The events in Spain should have made it obvious to me. The feeling in my gut told me something was going on between you. It was more than just insubordination. There had to be some other reason why you wouldn't follow my orders and kill the man. You and Kennedy"

He shook his head, the whole concept striking him as ridiculous.

"You don't honestly love this man" he argued.

"I do love him", Ada announced with bravado.

Of all the lies she had told Wesker over the years, finally some truth came out.

"Love?" Wesker asked, almost surprised. "Please spare me the romantic absurdities Ms. Wong. It's a fallacy that continues to perpetuate this world. I would have thought that such an emotion was a beyond you. I'm curious. What about him is so important?"

"He's the only person I've met that truly gave a damn about me. Let's be honest. I knew once you got what you needed from me that would be it. I'd be tossed away without another thought"

Nothing happened for a few moments. Ada turned away from Wesker, knowing that turning her back on him was an invitation to suicide. But she needed to compose herself before continuing.

"So that's it then? You honestly think that he's your Rosetta stone?" he asked, somewhat doubtful.

"Yes, he's my chance to do something with my life. Something better"

"Better? You think that this life you've chosen for yourself makes you a better person?" Wesker asked with a wave of his arm to the street. "Do you truly believe that this changes anything?"

"It does" Ada said, turning back around to face him while crossing her arms over her chest. "After everything I've done in my life, this gives me the capacity to change", she said. Her gaze was stoic. No matter what happened, she wasn't going to let her think she was afraid.

"Excuse me. _I _have the capacity to change", he retorted.

"Yes. You do" Ada stated. "You have the capacity to get fucking worse"

She took a breath to compose herself. This was dragging on too long.

"It doesn't matter anyway. You can cut the shit right now. Because in all honesty, you don't know a thing about me" Ada said, letting her anger surface. "Not a damn thing"

"But I do Ms. Wong. I know all about you"

He closed the distance between them and invaded her personal space. His presence was suffocating. So much so that Ada was having trouble breathing, her heartbeat was pounding in her ears.

"Not you specifically. But I know the type of person you are. This life you've made for yourself is a farce. Your real life is the one that, up until a few weeks ago, you had been content with living. Excitement, fear, danger. Living outside of the law. Doing what you want without fear of repercussions or consequences. Very few people take the initiative to live it"

Wesker leaned in close, moving past her head to whisper into her ear sinisterly.

"The truth is, you _get off on it_"

Ada felt sick in that very moment.

Wesker then moved away quickly, regaining his composure and giving his sunglasses a quick push to move them up the bridge of his nose.

"But perhaps I'm wrong. You can be _one of them_. But I wouldn't advise it. Normal people can never comprehend the lives we live. The work that we do. "

"People are smart" Ada said defensively.

She moved away from him and sat down on a nearby wooden bench. The piece was worn out by the weather and the years of abuse. It creaked under her weight as she settled into it. And then again as Wesker took a spot beside her.

"No", Wesker interjected, "A person is smart. _People_ are dumb, arrogant, savage creatures that think nothing of themselves. Look at them", Wesker said, turning his gaze to the masses that streamed past Ada and himself.

A couple walked hand in hand on the other side of the street. A small traffic jam had formed and people honked their horns. A mother treated her young son to an ice cream cone. A few feet away, a basket ball game could be heard being played in a nearby court. Grocers and shop owners closed up for the night. People smoked cigarettes. And yet still, hundreds of others walked passed with the same lifeless, melancholy gazes.

She turned to watch as he continued.

"They're cattle. Blissfully ignorant of the world around them. Their only concern is self substantiation. Hmmph", he finished with a small hum of a laugh. It wasn't so much a laugh as it was a declaration of his dissatisfaction. "Self substantiation. It's merely a colorful euphemism for keeping a species thriving. As if spreading ones DNA and genetics is a half hearted attempt at some form of immortality. Every day, they race closer and closer to ensuring their own extinction. Every day they dream up new ideas to kill one another. Such is as it's been for centuries, ever since the first organism crawled on its belly out of the primordial ooze. Besides, in the grand scheme of any design of this world, only a handful of humans matter"

He leaned back on the bench, allowing his arms to spread out along its backside. It was unlike him. And that's what scared Ada.

"You'll see. The winds of change are coming. Complements of my own plans"

Ada got off the bench, suddenly wanting to be as far away from the man as possible. He had overstayed his welcome. And she was in no mood to hear him go on about how nothing they did would matter. How he would always win. She was even less willing to hear him belittle her life decisions.

"You're insane" she said starting to walk away from him.

In the blink of an eye, he was at her side and dragging her violently into a side ally by her arm. Her back slammed into the brick work of a building as he got right in her face. She had forgotten how fast he could be.

"No, insanity is wasting your life as a nothing when you have the blood of a killer flowing through your veins. Insanity is being shit on. Beat down. Coasting through life in a miserable existence when you have a caged lion locked inside and the key to release it"

Wesker reached up to brush her bangs out of her face. She flinched ever so slightly as he touched her. It was like the touch of death.

"I was planning on killing your man, and then eventually yourself. Destroying your life bit by bit. And now I see you've gone and done a splendid job of that yourself. But I digress. Sooner or later, the life you left will come back to haunt you. I'll come back to haunt you"

Ada backed away to give herself a few inches then stood her ground against him. There was no smooth talking her way out of this. Only showing him what she was really made of. Even he couldn't take that from her.

"I'm not afraid of you Wesker", she said, words that had more courage than she thought were possible at the moment.

The look of surprise on Wesker's face was quite noticeable; from the way he raised is right eyebrow, to the small twitch in the corners of his mouth.

"I'm not afraid of dying", Ada finished as she pulled her jacket around her shoulders without looking at him. She started to make a move to the street. To escape.

"How do you know?" he asked.

Wesker had stepped from the side of Ada to her front, blocking her path. He took two steps toward her, closing the distance between them, boxing her in. Ada had her back to the brick wall of a building as she tried her best not to show the terror she held.

He leaned in closer to her so that his mouth was near her ear again and said, _"You've never tried it"_

"_This is it", _she thought as she felt the crushing feeling emanating from the man. "_This is the end of the road for me. After everything I've been through, all the horror and death, this is where I die. Here, on some side street. Oh God, please don't let this be the end for me. Not when I've finally gotten my life where I want it. Please God, let me walk away from this and go home. I just want to go home to him. To my Leon. Just let me go home to him. Just…"_

"What's going on here?" called a voice.

The two of them turned their attention to a police officer walking towards them. The man was old, at least in his fifties to say the least. The man's graying hair had started to recede and he sported a furry patch of a mustache that matched the hair on his head. His somewhat distended gut shook as he marched toward Ada and Wesker, concerned. Blue eyes stared at the two of them from pockets of wrinkled skin.

"Is this guy bothering you miss?" he asked, motioning to Wesker.

Without hesitating and putting on her best fake sense of confidence, Ada answered, "No officer. There's nothing here that you need concern yourself with"

"You sure miss?" he asked again, staring daggers at Wesker.

The younger blonde haired man stared right back at him with a look of annoyance. Like that of someone toward a fly.

"Yes, I'm sure", Ada repeated, pulling her jacket around her tighter and thinking, "_God, Just go already. You have no idea what this man is capable of"_

"You heard the woman, officer", Wesker told the man. "Nothing here that needs your attending to. So I believe it would be within everyone's best interest if you just went along with your evening."

Wesker turned to Ada.

"Wouldn't you say so? Miss Wong?"

Ada looked at him with an expression that said '_Please, don't'._ She knew exactly where this was headed.

"Perhaps the good officer would be better suited bother small children concerning their marijuana habits. Or finding a donut to eat"

"Alright pal", the officer said, removing his night stick that was clipped to his belt. "I think you need to learn some….

Ada knew enough about Wesker. She knew what had happened at the Arklay facility. How he had died, only to rise from the ashes as something different. She knew that Wesker wasn't entirely human anymore. And one that is not human is not bound by laws of humans. It was this fact that made him dangerous.

The old man didn't even have time to scream as Wesker parried the night stick out of the officer's hand. In a flash, the man's head was thrust into the brick wall, knocking him unconscious. With the man incapacitated, his trench coat flashing with his movements, Wesker tossed the him down the alley and into the side of a dumpster. It was effortless, almost like he was throwing a baseball. There was an awful crunch of metal as the man collided with the dumpster, denting it in the process. She didn't understand why he had done it. It was completely unnecessary. And now the old man was probably gravely injured or dead.

Her attention still on the alley, Ada could only choke out "Why?"

"To prove a point" he answered. "The human race is weak. It has become overburdened with pettiness and hedonism. But I aim to change that. Amazing thing will happen, Miss Wong. And if you want any certainty that you and yours will survive what is to come, you'll do one thing"

"Which is?" she asked, with cold hatred.

"Stay out of my way. Consider this the only warning you get"

Ada turned around to confront him only to find nothing but air to greet her.

**Author's note: [Insert half assed reason why this chapter is so late here]**

**Some lines are taken from the film **_**Wanted and Donnie Darko**_**.**


	5. Running Up That Hill

**Author's note: Leon's conversation with Claire in chapter 3 and Ada's conversation with Wesker in chapter 4 more or less happen at the same time. **

**Continuity. It's a wonderful thing.**

It was dark by the time that Ada had gotten back to Leon's apartment. She had just taken off her shoes and deposited them by the door before removing her jacket, which she tossed on the spiral staircase leading up to Leon's room. She stopped and stared out at the open mix of grays and blacks that reached out and entrenched the apartment. The devoid of color was accentuated by the noise that crept into the apartment. Or a lack thereof. The silence that permeated every inch and square foot of the living quarters reflected how she felt, as if it were some remnant of the last few hours.

It was the kind of dead cold silence that only comes from having a massive hole taken out of one's ego or morale. Despite however bright the sun may be in one's life, there always seemed to be a storm cloud very close by to darken the day.

Taking a moment to lean against the cool brick wall of the apartment, Ada took several sighing breaths to help oxygenate herself. She let her head hang forward slightly and raised her left hand, running it through her raven locks, only briefly noticing the small hint of warm sweat on her brow. A stark contrast to the cold weather outside. She let her head rest in her hand for a few seconds, her palm practically forcing itself into her eye socket. Ada didn't know whether it was to compose herself or to just allow her to get her bearings.

Her mind was still reeling from Wesker's surprise visit. The only thing that she could think of was how no matter how hard she tried to let go of her past, _her past was unwilling to let go of her_. It left her feeling defeated.

And Ada hated feeling defeated.

But more importantly her encounter with Wesker had left her with an intense sensation of un-cleanliness and filth. Like his essence or evil had rubbed off on her thoroughly. Even more so than during her employment to him.

_Raped_

Though she had never gone through such a horrible ordeal, Ada still felt like she had been raped. Perhaps not physically. Maybe not even mentally. But emotionally. And sometimes that was enough for anyone. It could be enough for someone as strong as herself to be put down, made to feel worthless. Made to feel like she didn't matter. That her actions were simply futile in the grand scheme of the world.

Ada was not only mad at Wesker. He was merely one half of the coin that she resided on. Ada despised herself as well. Despised that she had allowed him to get under her skin and stay there. She shouldn't have given a damn what anyone thought about her life and the choices she had made, let alone Wesker. And yet, here she stood. Kicking herself for her spat of weakness.

"_My life. My life and my choices. Not his. Who is he to come here and disrupt what I made for myself? He can't understand what redemption means to a person. So to hell with him"_

Strong words to help her move through the pain. That's all they were to her right now. And right this moment they were all she had. That and the same unclean feeling that she'd been carrying around with her for the past twenty minutes or so.

"Jesus", Ada sighed again. "I could really use a shower"

Pushing away from the wall, she steadily went up the spiral staircase and made her way into Leon's room. Ada fumbled in the dark for a few seconds before her hands found the bedside lamp on the nightstand. Once the light clicked on, she noticed the dent in the wood of the nightstand. Almost like someone had punched it. As quickly as the thought entered her mind, Ada disregarded it as insignificant and headed for the bathroom. Turning on the lights there as well, she reached into the shower and turned the temperature gauge all the way to hot and let the water run. While she waited for it to warm, she returned to the bedroom and removed her clothes article by article, placing them in a neat pile at the foot of the bed before laying out a set of pajamas for herself. Really, nothing more than a pair of Leon's gym shorts and another t-shirt.

She returned to the bathroom, satisfied that the water was up to temperature.

Steam billowed through the bathroom as Ada entered the shower, lowering the temperature so as not to burn herself. The warm water and vapor in the air enveloped her, rising and filling her lungs with humid comfort. Normally she would have taken some sense of enjoyment out of something as mundane as a hot shower. But not tonight. Instead, Ada let the water beat on her exposed back as her forearms rested against the slick tile of the shower wall. She stared down at the drain, watching water flow off of her hair; the dark locks now turned jet black by the water clumping it all together.

Ada was lost in thought for some time, just watching water flow off her and secretly hoping that the worst parts of her life would be taken with them. Leaving nothing but her redemption.

**III**

"Jeez, we were out there a while. Weren't we?" Leon asked rhetorically, glancing at his watch.

He and Claire had just made it back to his apartment. The conversation between them had extended somewhat once she had brought up the subject of Leon's residual infection from Spain. Even though it bewildered her, she was quick to dismiss it as 'one of those things you had to be there for'. Hell, stranger things had happened in their lives. At least she was thankful that he hadn't come back to the States as one of the walking dead or with some giant eyeball growing out of his shoulder.

Leon had asked her how Chris and Jill were doing. He had been surprised to learn that they were no longer working for the CIA anymore. Instead, Claire had informed him that the two of them were now part of a new international biohazard team. It was just getting off the ground. But from what Leon was told, he had a feeling that it was going to be big. And given the way bio-hazardous material and viral weapons were finding their way into other countries, he was thankful that the people in Washington had pulled their heads out of their asses and opened their eyes to the real problem.

The night was stretching on and it was damn near eleven. Leon had offered to get Claire's luggage for her. Even though she could handle it herself, he persisted for a variety of reasons.

She was a guest.

She had been through enough in one day.

It was the gentlemanly thing to do.

He felt like it.

And she was in no mood to complain any further.

They moved past the kitchen and living room towards the spare bedroom Leon had and that Claire was accustomed to staying in. Overhead, Leon could hear water running and knew Ada was upstairs in the shower. He didn't bother to mention this to Claire, nor did she seem to want to bring it up. Leon was in no mood for another fight. At the moment, they were all tired and he just wanted to get Claire settled in for the night.

"You still know about the shower, right?" he asked as he set her belongings on the floor inside the room.

Standing in the door frame, Claire stated, "Hot is cold and cold is hot. Nice to see you still haven't gotten that fixed" she gave a small snort of laughter.

"I always thought it added something to the place" Leon smiled before adding, "There should be fresh towels under the sink in the bathroom. I don't think Ada used them all up last time she…"

There was an uncomfortable silence between them and Leon automatically knew that he had charted into territory of poor taste. As far as the subject of sleeping quarters went. The two of them just stood there, staring at the floor.

"Well, see you in the morning" he said.

Solemnly and with her eyes pointed to the ground, Claire returned with a, "Yeah…see you"

With that, she closed the door.

Leon sighed and said "Sleep tight" under his breath before letting his head fall against the closed door softly. Sometimes, when it came to women, he had absolutely no idea what he was doing. Lord knows he tried his best.

"Smooth, Leon. Real smooth" he chastised himself before heading back towards the living room and the spiral staircase. The trek upstairs wasn't as difficult as he thought it would be. Because Leon knew who was waiting for him at the top, he eagerly climbed the stairs despite his current mood regarding Claire. Even before he had made his way upstairs, Leon had heard the water shut off and knew Ada would be stepping out. Not wanting to be rude, he knocked rather than barge in on his possibly naked fiancé.

A voice called out from the other side of the door, "Come in"

It was somewhat playful, almost seductive. She had to have been expecting him.

Leon turned the door knob and walked into his bed room to find Ada under the covers of his bed, waiting for him. The bedside lamp was the only source of light in the room and it cast shadows throughout. Ada's features were a mix of light and dark, the lamp casting the left side of her in a small amber glow. Her almost china white skin was accentuated by the light, as was her devilish smile. Leon saw that she had the sheets of the bed pulled past her chest, close to her neck. He didn't know what to say, knowing that she had something cooked up. The mischief in her mind was quite evident.

"Nice to see you finally found your way home" she teased. "I was starting to think I'd be spending the night by my lonesome"

Leon raised an eyebrow and surveyed his room, noticing her grenade pin on the nightstand and a pile of clothes at the foot of the bed. A pile which he recognized as his own, and had not worn that day. Leon shut the door behind him before leaning against it, arms crossed in gesture of flirtatious defense.

"Are those my clothes at the foot of the bed?" he asked, sauntering forward.

"Maybe" Ada answered, twisting the sheets around herself as she sat up a few inches.

"Are you naked under those sheets?" Leon inquired, pointing at her.

"Wanna find out?" she said, holding out her hand and beckoning him to her.

**III**

Claire couldn't sleep. She knew it was going to be a chore after the first hour. She had tried to rest in every possible position on the bed. Tossing and turning. Arms and legs wrapped around spare pillows. Head at the foot of the bed. She even spent fifteen minutes staring at the clock radio just watching the red, digital readout click by.

Eventually it was twelve thirty and Claire was still wide awake.

"_This is impossible"_ she thought to herself, sitting up on the bed.

Claire was too worked up to rest. There was just so much working its way through her head that trying to ignore it was an exercise in futility.

"_How about not mentioning any of this to your brother. At least not for awhile"_

Her heart stayed in her throat while she contemplated the choice that was tearing her up inside.

"Sorry Leon" Claire said to herself as she rummaged around in her things and found her cell phone.

She hesitated for only one more second before opening the phone and scrolling through her address book, landing on Chris' number. Hitting the send button, she placed the cell to her ear and waited for him to pick up. Claire knew that Chris wouldn't appreciate the late night call. But it was better now than at three in the morning. And besides, she had no one else to confide in. She had to get her feelings off her chest if she was going to have a decent night's sleep.

The phone rang three times before the other end was picked up. Claire could hear fumbling around on the other end, like someone was trying to get their bearings in a half awake daze.

"Hrrgggh…uh…hello?" Chris' voice answered.

Judging by the tone and slurring, Claire correctly deducted that she'd just woken her elder brother up.

"Chris" she said, hoping that her somewhat urgent tone would help roused him.

"Claire? Jesus…what time is it?" he asked, now finally waking up. She heard him turn in his bed to look at something, "Good God, it's almost one in the morning"

Claire rubbed the back of her head, "Yeah, sorry about that. But I needed to call you. It's…something big kinda… happened here"

"What's wrong?"

Claire started to get cold feet. She shook her head.

"You know, forget it. It can…wait till morning. It's nothing really serious. Really" she lied.

Claire's definition of 'serious' and her brother's definition were two completely different things.

Chris scoffed on the other end, "Come on, don't bullshit me. You know people only call each other at late hours when something serious happens. Talk to me Claire"

She took in a deep breath and let it out.

"I'm at Leon's and he's… with a woman", she finally sputtered it out. The second part of the sentence she practically had to force herself to speak.

She heard her brother grunt exasperatedly.

"Christ, Claire. You woke me up for that?" he accused her, somewhat annoyed. "It's your own damn fault you know. This wouldn't have happened if you thought to call ahead before thinking of inviting yourself…"

Claire started to tune him out as he lectured her, rambling off as he did so. She had always hated being lectured. Claire didn't appreciate it when their parents were still alive and she certainly didn't like it when Chris _acted like a parent_. It made her blood boil slightly.

"Chris, listen to me damn it!" she exclaimed, cutting him off.

"What?" he asked, finally realizing that something was amiss.

"It's Leon"

"What about Leon?" Chris asked.

Somewhere in the background, Claire could hear someone's voice. It was female and she was trying to get information from her brother.

"He's engaged", Claire stated whilst putting a hand to her forehead and keeping it there whilst biting her lower lip.

The line was quiet for a few seconds. Chris and Leon had known each other for almost as long as Claire had. They were practically buds and had gone out for a beer on several occasions. The revelation was as much of a shock to him as it had been to her.

"Wow. Alright, that's a little extreme" he said, stunned. "But I think this could have waited till morning for you to call me? I mean, who's the lucky lady? Anyone I know"

He was awfully chatty all of a sudden. A few seconds ago, he was ready to yell his head off at her for waking him up. But that was the thing with guys and their guy friends. It was like, if one of them was getting lucky, then they all were lucky by default. It was some unspoken sense of male brotherhood. Something that Claire didn't entirely understand.

"You could say that" she said, walking to the window and staring out it.

Many of the windows in the buildings across the street were out. Only a few remained lit. No doubt people burning the midnight oil like herself. Or other's engaged in their own late personal squabbles.

"Well, don't keep me in suspense here", Chris asked, hungry for the information.

"It's Ada…Wong", Claire answered before gritting her teeth and shutting her eyes tightly.

She was waiting for her brother's reaction. Which, given the circumstances, would turn to rage very quickly. The line fell silent again for several seconds as Claire's gut turned in on itself, feeling a small sense of betrayal towards her friend. Even though she had conflicting emotions about what had happened during the day, she still felt like scum for going behind Leon's back. This was compounded by the feelings she knew were churning in her brother this very moment at her revelation.

"This isn't funny Claire", he said matter-of-factly.

What was said had been said.

"_Might as well go for broke"_, she thought.

"Do you think I would call at this hour to crack jokes with you?" Claire asked her brother rhetorically.

"I'm not kidding Claire"

"Neither am I!" she protested.

"Claire, you better be serious about this, because I'm half tempted to hang up and call work. Ada Wong? Christ, you're in the same apartment with that woman? No…no, wait. Back up. And Leon's engaged to her? When was someone going to tell me about this? It's unthinkable that I should even have to ask what the hell is going through his head"

Claire didn't say anything for awhile. She didn't know if her brother's anger was directed at her or Leon. She could practically hear the gears in Chris' head turning.

"You know my opinion on this. On her. I…God I can't believe you threw this at me right now. Is there anything else I should know?"

Claire sat back down on the bed, "Chris, I don't want to go into a long winded explanation. There's so much to it that it would take hours to explain it all. But he says that he loves her. That she's reforming and defecting over to our side. They told me that she's not working with Wesker anymore"

"I don't care if the woman is flipping burgers at McDonalds! Claire, she worked with that son of a bitch all these years. If I don't do something right this second we could lose a shot at tracking him down and…"

"Chris…" Claire said, not knowing what direction to take the conversation.

Realization dawned on him, "Wait. Why are you calling me about this now? Why not get in touch with somebody more equipped to deal with her? This isn't a business call is it?"

"No…no…it's more of a…personal problem. I wouldn't have called you if I didn't have my doubts about this whole situation"

"Doubts? Claire, you don't honestly believe this woman do you?" Chris sputtered, not believing his sister's stance on the subject.

"I don't know what to believe anymore, big brother. But I believe in Leon. At least, I think I do. I've had some time to mull this over. I'm just…feeling so torn up inside, I had to call someone"

"You should have called the feds" Chris stated, almost accusingly.

She heard her brother sigh. And Claire heard the same someone else in the background.

"Leon must be insane or something if he thinks that he can trust her. He did the digging after Raccoon City, just like all of us. He knows what she's capable of. So, why is he allowing himself to be played by her?"

"He's not being played" Claire defended, suddenly sure of her stance on what was happening. "Leon's too smart for that. And aside from the reasons I already told you, I don't know. You'd be better off talking to him about this than me. But I wouldn't expect him to change his mind. It doesn't seem like he's going to be moved on this"

Silence descended on the line once again. Claire waited; her heart beating heavily, wondering what was going through Chris' head. She lay down on the bed, her head resting on a pillow.

"Well, I'm kinda one sided on this" Chris finally said. "It's only because you're my sister and old enough to make your own decisions that I don't have that woman arrested right this second."

Claire was afraid that the conversation would go in this direction. Chris was allowing his anger towards Wesker to override his logic. There wasn't anything else in front of his face. It was all black and white. No shades of grey. He wasn't giving her anything that she could work with to get rid of the confliction she felt inside. There was only one other avenue to turn to at the moment.

"Is Jill there?"

"What…no", he lied.

She knew it was a lie because she had been hearing someone else breathing and making small comments the entire time.

"Chris, come on. I know she's lying right next to you. She's probably been listening to this whole conversation."

She didn't hear her brother say anything. What she did hear was the receiver being passed from one person to the other.

"Claire?" Jill's voice called from the other end of the line.

"Yeah, I'm here" she answered, finally glad that someone would be willing to act as the voice of reason.

"Okay, what can I do to help you solve this?" Jill offered.

So she had been listening to the conversation.

"Just tell me what I should do here, Jill. I'm at a cross roads"

Jill's voice, albeit stern, was more calm than Chris', "Claire, you know as well as I do that Leon isn't the kind of person to go and do something like this unless he has a good reason. I don't necessarily agree with his decision at the moment. I still need to hear the whole story, but from what I've heard thus far, this seems genuine. I mean, you know as well as I do that stranger things have happened in this world" she told her, helping her to find some common ground.

That was definitely the truth.

"For all you know, he's been hiding his feelings for this woman from you all these years. I mean, something had to bring them together" Jill said, trying to pick apart the issue.

Claire kicked herself a little. She knew better than to jump to conclusions. Leon had mentioned he had held a candle for Ada for the past several years. Hell, she was still holding feelings for Steve. And he had been gone for a while.

Jill continued, "Just like something had to make her cut her ties to that man. At this point, regardless of the circumstances, I think we should be grateful to have one more person on our side against Wesker. And with as much inside knowledge as she has. I'm not about to look a gift horse in the mouth"

While still not crazy about the situation, Claire started to see where Jill was coming from. She was trying to turn a negative into a positive.

"But really Claire, think of Leon. If you trust him I know you'll find a way to make the best of this situation. Because right now, it's in your hands. Not mine and not your brother's. For the moment anyway"

"Right" Claire sighed. "Thanks Jill"

Claire hung up the phone and turned over on the bed. How was she going to trust a woman when her instincts told her otherwise?

**III**

What truly makes a home a 'home'? There are certainly many answers to the question. It could be the feeling of safety one receives, knowing that nothing can touch them within their sanctuary. A bubble where you don't have to hide yourself from the outside world, pretending to be someone you're not. Or perhaps it's the warm sensation that permeates a dwelling. A cozy feeling that wraps itself around you like a favorite blanket. The smell of the carpet, the softness of a comfortable couch, the view from your window as you greet the rising sun. A kiss from the new day. Any and all can be claimed as reasons for the phrase 'Home Sweet Home' to fit. But in actuality, while these are worth mentioning, they pale in comparison to what truly allows one to feel at home.

For in actuality, it's the people that give a home that special something. One's essence helps define the domicile giving the others the ability to latch onto it and thus gather their strength, their ability to cope with whatever the world throws at them.

Such was how Ada was coping now. She lay against Leon's naked chest, her breasts pressed into his stomach while he stroked her hair.

After a period of silence Leon opened his mouth, "Ada?"

"Shhhh…" she said, running her hand over his collar bone.

"What?" he asked, placing his right hand on her exposed back. His left was being used to rest his head.

"I'm listening" she answered, not bothering to lift her head to look at him.

Leon thought for a few seconds before speaking, "My heart?"

Ada listened as his chest rose and fell in a distinct pattern. The heart beats were audible through his chest cavity, going through short periods of heightened pace before falling again. His breath warmed the back of her neck while she listened to the rhythm of his cardiac cycle. She wondered if his heart was beating to sustain him or if it was beating for her. To sooth her. To be her lullaby.

"Hmmm", Ada hummed in agreement, "I love that sound. You have a strong heart"

"Yeah, and the rest of me isn't too shabby either", he said as he wrapped his arms around her gently.

Ada welcomed his embrace. She welcomed the warmth that flowed off of him and into her. It was the same warmth that she had experienced years ago as he had carried her from the train and into the underground Umbrella lab. It made her feel safe. But more importantly, it made her feel loved. Really loved. She laughed to herself as a thought crept into her head.

"What are you thinking about?" Leon asked, intrigued

"Nothing", she lied, nuzzling into his chest.

"Come on" he pushed.

"You'll think I'm crazy", Ada warned, looking up at him and into his eyes.

Leon smiled and brushed some of her dark hair out of her face. What little light shown into the room cast an otherworldly glow onto the woman, making her rosy skin stand out in a pale hue. He loved that about her. Leon thought she looked like an angel. Ada's hair had a bright sheen to it. Her lips were soft and comforting. Delicate hands traced their way around his chest and neck, tickling him ever so slightly. Her almond shaped eyes were warm and inviting, making him want her to open up to him. To share her thoughts.

"Ada, I don't know if you've noticed or not, but there isn't much about our lives that isn't crazy" he said, placing his hand under her chin and lifting it up lovingly.

Ada gave a small half smile at the statement. Leon had a point. Most people didn't experience what the two of them had and still manage to skate by with a somewhat normal existence. Out of everything they had gone through, one more crazy statement was just another brick in the foundation.

She pushed off of Leon and lay her head down on a pillow next to him. He turned on his side so that they were staring at each other, barely inches away from each other's face. Ada gazed into Leon's eyes and wondered how he had managed to stay so perfect throughout everything. Despite it all he had fought to stay strong and steadfast.

"I was just thinking how what happened in Raccoon City six years ago was the best thing that happened to either of us" she told him.

Leon's eyes went wide for a second and he chuckled, "Okay, you are crazy"

She clutched the pillow with her hand and pulled herself a little closer to him.

"No, think about it Leon. If neither of us had gone to that place then we wouldn't have run into each other. And if we hadn't run into each other than the bond between us wouldn't have formed"

_Leon let his thoughts drift back to the end of his nightmare in Raccoon. He had just jumped onto the train with Claire and Sherry Birkin. Walking into the train's control cabin, he had looked out towards the oncoming tracks of the tunnel, lost in forlorn thought._

"_Goodbye Ada" he said brokenhearted._

Leon put a hand on her face and caressed Ada's cheek, lightly sliding his thumb just under her eye.

"Did you ever think of me after Raccoon?" he asked curiously.

Ada paused while she picked apart his question. In all honesty, he had touched her during their travels in Raccoon. At the time, she had put much thought into throwing it all away and escaping with him. She still had a job to do. Retrieving the G-virus sample was her _reason for coming to Raccoon_. But during the night's events, Leon was _becoming her reason for leaving_.

In an insane world it was the sanest choice. She couldn't bring herself to hurt a man who had risked his life for her numerous times. Everyone had choices to make that night. And she was on the verge of making her most important one. But the winds had turned unexpectedly. At the last second her choice had been made by someone else. All she remembered was a gunshot and searing pain in her shoulder. She only half realized that it was Birkin's wife and somehow she didn't seem to care. The pain was enough to send her over the edge of a railing in a daze. Then all she remembered was Leon struggling to save her, knowing it was futile. Her heart had broken for both of them as she refused to let him be dragged into the darkness with him. After falling away from him, Ada had thought that she would have never seen Leon again. Lord knows his scream for her had echoed in her dreams at least a few nights.

"A little" she admitted, somewhat ashamed. "I never thought we would ever meet again. You know, love lost and all that. So I didn't really put much stock in 'what ifs'. But a thought of you would always creep into my mind every now and then. Thinking back on it I was…foolish to let that opportunity slip away"

"Why's that?" Leon asked.

"Because after everything that's happened in my life, you were the one good thing to come out of it. Spain was…a second chance for me. For us"

Ada paused and looked up at the ceiling, thinking hard before turning back to him.

"Do you believe in fate Leon?"

In the dark, she saw him cock an eyebrow. Then he made a slight scoff, debating the question with himself.

"Had you asked me that a few years ago I would have said no" Leon answered bluntly. "There's too much in this world that happens only because others allow it. Nothing ever just falls into place like a godsend. Luck is really just preparation meeting opportunity"

"But…" she interrupted, eager for what he had to say.

"But, when we ran into each other again in Spain…" he trailed off. "Ada, it couldn't have just been a coincidence"

"Are you sure?" she asked playfully.

"Oh, so now you're a skeptic?" he said kissing her forehead.

"No, I'm serious" she told him. "Do you remember back in the underground lab? You promised we'd escape together"

"But we didn't Ada"

"You're wrong. We're here now. You and me" she entwined her fingers with his. "Leon, you kept your promise. Because of that and everything that's happened since then, well, it's all given me a…change of perspective"

"A change of perspective?"

"Yes. I don't know how else to say it. No one's ever made the sacrifices for me that you have. In a way it made me realize that there's more to life than what I was doing. Or at least other ways of doing it that would benefit others and not just myself. But the truth is, is that you…no" she corrected herself. "Us. You and me together. That's worth fighting for. A chance at happiness. It's just a shame that it took up until a few weeks ago for me to realize it."

"Well, it's nice to see a change in you" he stated.

"I haven't changed Leon" she answered, second guessing herself.

Wesker's words still stung like an old burn wound.

"Sure you have. You just don't realize how much Ada"

She kissed him softly, their lips pressing together gently. A silent act of thankfulness. Wesker was wrong. Ada was doing exactly what she was meant to do. She had no one to apologize for that.

They didn't say anything for a few seconds before Leon thought of something that made him smile.

"Huh", he chuckled. "I do know one thing"

"What's that?" Ada wondered, pulling herself towards him and resting against his shoulder.

"We are gonna have one hell of a story to tell our kids one day" he grinned.

Ada smiled at the thought.

"_Mommy? How did you and Daddy meet?"_

"_Well, there was this city a long time ago, full of zombies…"_

Then Ada remembered her pregnancy test and her talk with Wesker and her smile faded.

"Yeah…kids" she muttered.

"Something the matter?" Leon asked, sensing her change of demeanor.

"No, nothing at all" she lied. "But I was thinking. What do we do about your friend?"

"I talked to Claire. She seemed to calm down. But you have to understand how much of a shock this is to all of her. Being kept out of the loop for a while and then getting bombarded with this situation is a bit much"

"Leon, the woman attacked me" Ada protested somewhat.

"And I'm not excusing her actions. But maybe you two should try a fresh start", he offered.

"Not the most thrilling of ideas", Ada said, skeptically.

"I didn't say it was. But we're never going to have any peace here unless this gets settled. And I don't intend on losing either of you over this", he said, rubbing her shoulder lovingly.

"_A fresh start?"_


	6. Hurt

Claire Redfield didn't dream much anymore. After the hand full of nightmares following Raccoon City and Rockfort Island, she tried everything in order to get a good night's rest. Chewing valerian root, meditation and exercise. Even seeing doctors, hypnotherapists or giving her brother one last phone call before bed. Nothing seemed to work. Eventually she had settled into the habit of trying to focus on as much positive thinking as she could. Claire would often pour herself into work or fixate on whatever good moment was happening that day. It was the least that she could do in order to get through the night. Half the time she was thankful that her sleep only contained an uninterrupted darkness.

That Claire didn't dream much wasn't to say that she didn't dream at all. On the rare occasions where she did have dreams, they were always about the same subjects. She dreamed about the times she and Chris had spent with their parents before they died. She dreamed about going to Raccoon City and spending time with Chris and his S.T.A.R.S. team on a few occasions. The outings around the city with her brother. Shopping with Jill on several occasions. Going target shooting with Barry and Forest. And even trading stories with Brad, Joseph or some of the members of Bravo team.

All were good memories that had overshadowed the bad dreams she'd had from time to time. The death and horror of it all would have been too much for anyone. And Claire was no exception. If it wasn't for her survival instinct or the training she'd received from Chris, then she would have never made it out of the city alive. Of course, she had Leon to thank for that as well. But no one had come away from that city alive and not scarred because of it.

There had been moments in the months which followed where she had been torn from her sleep by images of the undead and the genetic monsters she had encountered. Feeling that she was being pursued by them once again.

Inhuman monsters hungry for her blood. Creatures that would not stop or that she hadn't been fast enough to escape. Possibly the worst were the nightmares of being stalked by the creature she had dubbed Mr. X. The impossibly tall bald man in the trench coat that had hunted Claire and Sherry had been a reoccurring topic in her nightmares.

"_It's his facial features. His eyes"_, Claire had told herself in retrospect.

It had been inhumanly stoic. Completely devoid of any feeling.

The fact that the creature had menaced her and was capable of coming straight through walls had been horrible enough. But the lack of any emotion while it did these things was an aspect that had chilled her to her very core. Up till that point in her life, Claire had never known of anything that could have been that cold, merciless, and unrelenting.

But the horror that invaded her dreams was nothing like the sadness.

Claire had dreams where she would be asleep in her own home, safe in her own bed. Then, like a flash she would see one of them. A white, blinding light would fill the room and then standing there, smiling like old friends, would be either Sherry or Steve. It didn't really matter. They practically took turns at it. All she could remember is feeling such joy at them being there with her. Like missing pieces of herself come to make her whole again. They would appear and then by the time Claire could get out of her bed and out the door of the room, they'd be gone. Replaced by an infinite hallway of doors. Lost and unattainable. Claire wouldn't know what to do in the dreams but run and search till her body ached.

Then she'd wake up, tears in her eyes. Remnants or ghosts from the past still in her mind like smoke dissipating in the air. Gone, but never really there to begin with.

But this morning, it wasn't the dreams that woke Claire up. It was music.

She groaned as her eyes tore themselves open and greeted the day. Blinding sunlight shot into the room, making her squint. Dull guitar riffs echoed through her brain, prying her from her slumber. Either Claire had exceptional hearing or Leon had his music turned up too loud. Regardless, all she wanted to do was put her head back down and drift off to sleep again.

She was used to Leon's choice of music. However, having to listen to grunge this early in the morning was more than she could take at the moment. Claire would have preferred the jazz music he was used to listening to, but it was his apartment and as a result, his choice of music.

She sighed and rolled over in bed, tugging at her pillow and wrapping herself into a fetal position. It was late fall and the room was ice cold, save for her own body heat that protected her like a cocoon. She didn't want to budge. The previous day had left a bad taste in her mouth. The least Claire wanted to do was have a repeat. There was nothing about the morning that could really force Claire out of bed. That was, until she smelled bacon and possibly pepper.

"_Great, another world famous Leon S. Kennedy breakfast"_ she thought as she pulled on a 'Queen' hooded sweat shirt and dug around in her bag for some socks for her feet.

The numerous times that Claire had spent with Leon had presented many things. But the most important might have been the fact that the man had an aptitude and flair for the kitchen. It was apparent that Leon didn't get company much. But when the opportunity presented itself, he was a most generous host. Much more so than her own brother.

While Chris always meant well, he couldn't cook for shit. Leon ranked right up there with several well taught chefs. At least in Claire's opinion.

She opened the door to the guest bedroom and walked out into the living room. Claire hadn't eaten in over half a day and was so fixated on the smell of the cooking meal that she almost forgot why she was in such a bad mood. That was until she turned the corner into the living room and stopped in her tracks.

"_Arrggh", _she groaned inwardly. "_I'm in Hell"_

It was like a really twisted version of Three's Company. Leon was at the stove, casually poking at what appeared to be scrambled eggs in a pan while humming along to an old 'Alice in Chains' song. A few feet away sat Ada, her head in her hand as she leaned forward, smiling in Leon's direction. The two of them had been up for some time as they were both dressed and ready for the day. Leon wore nothing more than a pair of jeans and a black, form fitting t-shirt that showed off his pecs and upper body. It was almost as if it were too small on him. Ada wore a pair of black, business style slacks and a red button down shirt which accentuated her bosom.

There was a kind of energy in the air that Claire was picking up on. Good vibes. It had been evident that they had been having a conversation. The way Leon would look over his shoulder at Ada and the manner in which she leaned forward in content anticipation. But there was more to it. No one was that pleasant at nine o three in the morning unless…

"_Unless they had gotten laid the previous evening"_ Claire thought, hiding her distaste at the situation.

Leon looked up from the stove and over to where she stood, Ada quickly following his gaze. He gave her a smile while Ada merely gave a look of contempt.

"You're just in time, I was wondering when you'd roll out of bed", Leon said, taking the pan of eggs off the stove and scraping them onto a plate with a spatula. "And here I was starting to think it would be only two for breakfast"

Claire shot Ada a cautious look.

"_Yep, he definitely got laid last night"_ she thought to herself.

"You'll have to forgive the accommodations, but it looks like we're sitting at the island for our meal today" he said, clicking off the burners on the stove.

Claire breathed inward and a rich smell of bacon, French toast and spices filled her nose. Her stomach growled in anticipation and her mouth watered as she slowly made her way to the kitchen and sat down next to Ada. Claire mentally prepped herself, unwilling to let the circumstances affect her meal.

They all sat in silence while they ate, Claire eyeing Ada while she chewed. Few words were exchanged other than the occasional 'Could you pass the syrup?' or 'Would you like a second helping?'

Eventually they finished and Leon collected the dishes, depositing them in the sink.

"So, what's on the agenda today?" Claire asked as Ada got up and pushed her seat in.

Leon gathered his keys and reached into a side closet for his jacket, "I'm going out shopping for a new table"

"Do try to look for something a bit more sturdy" Ada offered with a half smile while patting her mouth with a napkin.

"_Bitch" _Claire thought, as the Asian woman was making light of the scuffle from the other day.

Claire immediately saw Leon's trip to the store as a chance be alone with and reconnect with him.

"Do you want me to come along with you?" Claire asked, hopeful.

"Nope" he answered reaching for the door.

"No?" Claire said, taken aback.

"No", he repeated, his keys jangling slightly in his hand, "I think it would be better if spent some time with my fiancé"

It was as if the words had phased right through her. Just a collection of white noise that she hadn't heard as distinctly as she would have preferred.

"Say what?!" Claire exclaimed.

"I think it would be good for you and Ada to get to know one another", he reiterated.

She shot a glance between Leon and Ada before addressing him again.

Claire scoffed, "Leon, you can't be serious"

Ada sauntered over to Leon as he opened the door. He was just about to step out when he turned around and gave her a kiss and a hug goodbye as she came to him.

"No, I'm serious. I'll be back in a few hours. Just try to play nice", he half smiled, half nodded.

"No promises lover" Ada said coyly.

Claire was still fumbling trying to figure out what was happening as Leon closed the door behind him. She stood there in shock for what seemed like forever. Out of all the curveballs he had to throw at her, this one came as unexpected as the events of the day prior.

"_Great"_ Claire thought as she stared at the closed door.

She turned around to face Ada and the two women stared at each other for the longest time. A thick, uncomfortable silence like the calm before the storm rippled through the apartment. Claire had no idea what the next few hours would bring.

**III**

Claire escaped to the guest bedroom and got herself ready for the day, intent on spending the rest of it locked in the room. Leon was insane if he thought she was ready to be all 'buddy-buddy' with a woman she still loathed somewhat. She had her laptop, a TV and access to a bathroom. Claire didn't plan on going anywhere for the next couple hours. Of all the problems she had faced in her life, this was one she could outright ignore. That wasn't to say that the problem wouldn't ignore her. Soon enough there was a knock at her door.

"Claire?" Ada's voice came from the other side of the door.

Claire rolled her eyes and reached for her i-Pod.

Another series of knocks. What did Leon expect them to do? Braid each other's hair? Do their nails? Forget it. She wasn't going to do anything with this woman. Just because she understood Leon's situation with her didn't mean she fully accepted it. She was his friend anyway, not Ada's.

"Claire, you know you can't stay in there forever" Ada noted.

"Watch me" Claire said to herself, putting her ear buds in and cranking her music to drown the other woman out.

Within seconds the door burst open and Claire leaped from the bed.

"What the hell!" she said as Ada tossed a jacket to her. The garment landed on her head, blocking her vision.

"I really don't have time for games here. You don't like me? Too bad. But we are going to get along by the time this day is over" she said, fed up with playing games with the younger woman.

"The door was locked how did you even get in?"Claire asked, pulling the jacket off her head.

Ada crossed her arms over her chest, leaning on the doorframe, "You think that was the first lock I've ever had to pick?"

Claire seethed with rage.

"So what now?" she asked, giving Ada a death glare.

"Put the coat on and let's go" she ordered, walking out of the room.

"And just where are we going?" Claire inquired.

**III**

"So, how does this work?" she asked.

In an effort to make sure that a scene wouldn't have been made, Ada took Claire out to a local coffee shop. Following Leon's advise to start fresh with Claire she had purchased beverages as a form of peace offering, which Claire had begrudgingly accepted. The warm cup nestled in her hand, she fidgeted with a stirring straw as Ada took a sip and let the late Autumn sunlight shine through the shop window, warming her face. It was rather crowded. A great number of people had found sanctuary in the shop and the many voices filled the air in an indistinguishable hum of sound. Ada sighed and turned to face Claire, leaning back in her seat.

"I'm not quite sure about that myself. But…I think one of us should start with stating the obvious", Ada said.

"The obvious", Claire stated in an almost sarcastic manner while nodding her head. "Well the obvious would be that you're a tremendous bitch"

A few people seated near the two women turned their heads in reaction to Claire's statement. They held their gaze for a few moments before returning to their own business. Ada remained stoic, like she had been anticipating the insult. She blinked in a half bored manner and said, "Alright, I had that coming"

They didn't say anything for a few seconds, just absently sipped their coffee and waited for the other to speak their mind.

Ada set her cup on the table and folded her hands, "You don't like me. It's been more than apparent the second I opened the door"

Claire scoffed with a slight turn of her head, "That sure as hell goes without saying"

Ada ignored the comment, brushing her dark hair behind her right ear with a delicate movement of her hand.

"Actually" she continued, "I have no real reason to dislike you. Other than the few bruises that you gave me yesterday. I should mention, were my ribs done healing you wouldn't have been as lucky in the fight as you had been"

Claire frowned ignoring the last statement, "Are you kidding? You have plenty of reason to hate me Ada. Having six or seven years pass and shacking up with one of my dearest friends does not change that"

"Of course it does" Ada protested in an almost caring manner. "Things change. Every year, the world changes. People change. You, me, everyone. The day you stop changing is the day you die"

Claire absorbed the woman's words. Sure it made sense. But to Claire it was just noise. Or it was Ada's attempt at being philosophical in hopes of making some kind of Freudian breakthrough. A stab at friendship under the guise of realistic insight. It didn't matter. Claire just let it go in one ear and out the other. But she had Ada here with her. There was no reason why she couldn't at least walk away from the encounter with something useful.

"Why?" Claire asked.

"Why?" Ada reiterated. "Why what?"

"Why Wesker? Because that's what really has me stumped here."

And there it was. The million dollar question that people had cashed in on numerous times over the years. The one answer to which would make or break Ada's standing with the woman seated across from her.

Ada moved her coffee off to the side of her and leaned forward, one hand resting on top of the other. She looked down, almost like she was ashamed, "In all honesty I don't quite know myself. At the time it seemed like it was a good idea. If I was going to take down people like the ones that had killed my family, starting in a pharmaceuticals giant seemed like it was a good place to start"

"You're family?" Claire asked.

"Leon didn't tell you did he? No matter, it's a story for another time"

Claire put the topic off to the side as she continued.

"How could you not know what he was? What he was capable of?" Claire asked, shaking her head slightly, in a disbelieving way.

"I knew exactly what Wesker was Claire. Working as a double agent, you learn to watch each and every move the people around you make"

"A double agent? You were _working for your people by working with Wesker_? Unbelievable. If you were working as a double agent, then you could have left at any time" Claire stated, obviously.

Ada shook her head.

"It doesn't work like that in this business. You don't just decide to stop one day. Doing the things that I did takes an awful lot of time, more time than anyone can even comprehend. You can lose sight of where your loyalties lie when you work for and against so many people. And the same goes for _him"_

Ada closed her eyes in reflection and took in a breath, letting it out once she had collected herself.

"Wesker's like a rose Claire. The man can draw you in with some charm and whit. But he also has thorns. Thorns with poison and evil. And they're the type of thorns that once they have a hold of you, they don't let go so easily. So sometimes it's better to stay with a small sting and reap the benefits that can come with it"

Ada stared into Claire's eyes with a stern gaze, making sure the redheaded woman understood the severity of her situation.

"You don't just cut ties with Wesker, Claire. There are repercussions. Consequences beyond your wildest fantasies"

Claire took a sip of her almost lukewarm beverage, "Go on", she said.

"At the time, I didn't know what he was. By the time I found out, it was too late. For me, it was better just to stay till I could find an out. But I think I stayed too long. Things got skewed. Lines blurred. If you spend enough time around a devil, some of his worst qualities can rub off on you. Your reasons for your actions are not what they once were. You become a different person. Someone you're not proud of. You can hurt people. And yet you keep going. You learn to block out that little piece of you that acts as a conscience. Convincing yourself that it's all for the greater good. In the end it will all be worth it"

Ada felt something deep inside her. She didn't know what it was initially. But she eventually realized the feeling as self loathing. There was some fiction to her truth. But overall, it had been her decisions and her decisions alone. And she was accountable for them all, regardless of what position she had been put into.

It had been a long time before Ada had been familiar with the term 'conscience'

"Are you sorry for anything that you've done?" Claire asked her, like a vengeful parent.

"No I'm not. I never did anything to harm anyone", Ada answered unapologetically

"The hell you didn't. Because of you Wesker has a sample of the G-virus", Claire accused, pointing a finger at the Asian woman.

"If you were in my position you would have given it to him too", Ada said in defense.

"What position? What if you hadn't?" she asked with a slight shrug and shake of her head.

"Then that crater, where Raccoon city used to be, that's where I would be right now. I had to give it to him or else I would have never made it out of there", Ada said unapologetically.

"And you never thought of what he would do with it? How many people could have been harmed because of it?"

"I did, but I wasn't going to be left in that city to die. I didn't make anyone pull the trigger here Claire"

"No, you just put the bullets in the gun"

Ada turned her gaze downward slightly in anger. It was a low blow. Claire had defiantly struck a chord with her.

"Don't try and act so righteous Claire. I'm not apologizing for living" she said, placing a hand on her chest. "If I have anything to apologize for it's for hurting Leon and only Leon. And since then, I have done a damn good job of atoning for what I've done"

**III**

The conversation ended there abruptly while the two of them finished their coffee. Once done, they deposited the empty Styrofoam cups in a trash receptacle and exited the coffee shop. The cold Autumn air was a stark contrast to the warmth that the shop had provided only moments ago. Ada and Claire walked down the sidewalk, not really in any hurry to get anywhere. They just walked, Ada hoping for the two of them to some kind of understanding.

"Humor me here", Claire said, her hands in her pockets. "You look like the type of woman who could have any man she wants. Just what is it about Leon that makes him so goddamn special to you?"

In a flash it all came rushing back to her. The last six years all rolled into one joyous and pain filled montage in her head.

"_What was that all about? Running off like that was reckless and stupid!"_

"_It's my job to look after you"_

"_I promised you we'd escape together. You just have to help me out here!"_

"_YOU PUT A FUCKING GUN TO MY HEAD!"_

"_I'll come back to you. I promise"_

"_I love you"_

Ada stopped in the middle of the sidewalk. She knew the answer to Claire's question. It just took her by surprise. She hadn't thought how to answer it in-depth. It took a moment of reflection.

"Leon is…" she started to say.

Ada thought for a moment about everything Leon meant to her. How could she ever put into words how she felt about him and all that he had done for her at the expense of himself.

"He's unlike anyone I've ever met before. He's strong, determined, intelligent, good looking" she said, looking dreamily towards the sky, like a love struck school girl.

"That's it?" Claire asked incredulously.

"No" Ada smiled with a shake of her head. "What really pulls me towards him is how selfless he is. He's willing to put anyone before himself. To do the right thing. Men like him are so few and far between these days. He's one of the good ones that has stayed as such despite all that's happened to him in this world. But I think above it all, it's his spirit. You can't break Leon S. Kennedy. You can't stop him. There's just something about him. His determination. How he wants to work for a better world. I mean, isn't that what everyone wants? A better future for themselves and their family?"

Claire was stunned. Mostly due to the fact that she never expected such sincerity from the woman.

"For the longest time I was just too focused on my own goals in life. So much so that I never let anyone in. I shut down completely, determined to do what I had to in order to get where I needed to go in life. But meeting Leon, he changed my outlook on life. It had been so long since I'd let anyone help me, or care for me the way he did that I didn't really know how to react to it. In a way, I think meeting him and finally deciding to be with him makes up for what happened to my family all those years ago. It's as if God or some other divine being came to their senses and said 'Okay Ms. Wong, you've had enough. We're going to cut you some slack for a change'"

Claire sighed and cocked an eyebrow, "Nice story. If it's true then why did Leon decide to forgive you after everything you did to him?"

"Because…." Ada paused, collecting her thoughts.

Claire pushed the topic, "Because what?"

"Because we came to understand each other. Because I was in his shoes in California"

"What happened in California?" Claire asked.

Ada paused for a moment while she collected her thoughts. She was hesitant in bringing up the painful memory. All she could focus on was the heart wrenching feeling that came from watching Leon disappear as the elevator separated them, leaving her beloved to his doom against the monster.

"Let's just say….when things were at their worst…. and Leon was at his best he had to make a decision about which of us was going to live or die. He chose me. And because he chose me to live, I thought I was going to lose him forever"

Claire's continued to listen.

"I loved him like he loved me back in Raccoon City. And when I thought I had lost him, Jesus, it crushed me. I felt like my whole world had been torn away from me. I thought Raccoon was my one and only shot. That Leon was the one that got away. But then Spain happened. And then California"

Ada looked at Claire, earnestly.

"I had my eyes opened Claire. And I saw what really…mattered in this world. I decided to stop living for myself and live for someone else. Someone who actually gave a damn whether I lived or died. Who didn't want to use me to further their own gains. It's just a shame that it took me this long to figure it all out"

Claire folded her arms across her chest and leaned against the wall of a building, looking out at the traffic as it passed by. The smell of stale fuel and old leaves passed with it.

"Is there anything else?" she asked.

Ada almost laughed as she answered, "Yes, actually. I don't know many men who cook well and are willing to sing or dance with their women?"

"Leon…sings?" Claire asked in disbelief, cocking and eyebrow.

"And dances", Ada added with a small nostalgic smile.

"So…how's he in bed?" she joked.

Ada's smile faded.

"Claire, you're coming dangerously close to crossing the line. That's my fiancé you're talking about"

Claire shuddered.

"Jesus, I'm still not comfortable with the idea of you too together"

Ada bit her lip as an unpleasant thought moved into her mind.

"Do you love him?" she asked almost hesitantly.

"What?"Claire said, blindsided by the question.

"You heard me. Do you love him? Do you feel about Leon the way I do?"

"Yes" Claire answered without thinking.

Ada's heart leaped into her throat. She kept her emotions in check as she stared Claire down. No matter what, she was not giving up Leon.

"No…" Claire corrected herself, closing her eyes and shaking her head. "I don't know"

She turned away from Ada and starred into the picture window of a nearby bakery. Claire put the fingers of her hand to the bridge of her nose and lost herself in thought while Ada continued to gaze at her, waiting for her to compose herself and finish what she had to say.

"For a time, I had mixed feelings toward him. I probably don't have to tell you this, but when you go through things like we went through…all the horror and evil, no matter who you're with or whomever is at your side, you end up forming a bond with them"

Claire dropped her hand from her face only to cross her arms over her chest.

"I used to wonder how people who go off to war and then come home go on living. They witness the atrocities of life and then have to return to a sense of normality. And no one back home will ever truly understand what they went through"

Ada had a brief vision of all the veterans who came back from wars. All the news stories of men and women who came back damaged because of what they had experienced while fighting. Once a person is broken, it takes a long time for them to ever become fixed. That's if they can be fixed at all.

"It's only the people who fought _with them_ that have any idea what the person is going through inside" Claire continued.

"You can't expect anyone else to really _get it_ without having been there themselves" she said with a brief gesture of her hands for exclamation. "That's how Raccoon was for me. And it wasn't just Raccoon, but Rockfort too. Just one giant nightmare, horror movie rolled into a few months. All I wanted was my brother back. I just wanted to go home. Well I got my wish. After it all, I went back and finished college. By then, word had gotten around that I was a Raccoon city survivor"

She stopped to tuck some stray pieces of hair behind her ear, rubbing her neck as she finished.

"I wouldn't expect you to understand what it was like to have someone stick a microphone in your face every so often and want to hear the same thing that you hear from every goddamn survivor of every tragedy in this world. Or what it's like to go out with friends and have them pester you for 'war stories' while all you want to do is go to a club and dance your sorrows away"

She stopped talking for a few seconds while a group of people passed them on the street. Whether it was out of courtesy or to catch her breath, Ada didn't know.

"I mean, God, there's a reason that people want to bury the past and move on with their lives" Claire stated.

"But with my brother, his friends, and even Leon it's different. They were there. They went through the same experience that I did. That _you _did", she pointed at Ada to make sure the Asian woman understood that she was just as much of the checkered past as the rest of them.

"And believe me. The incident at the airport didn't make things any better at all for us. Hell, all of our skeletons practically came screaming out of the closet a few days ago"

Claire finally decided to start walking again and Ada hustled to catch up. In a few long strides, she was walking by Claire's side again.

"But they understand. And because they understand, we can all relate to each other. That city of death, as much as it pains me to say it, is the glue that holds us all together. So in a way, I do love Leon. Because without him, I lose the piece of myself that keeps me from going insane"

"You're a strong person. You know that?" Ada stated rhetorically, placing a hand on the other woman's shoulder.

"Don't patronize me Ada", Claire snapped, wrenching Ada's hand off of her. "The only reason that we're strong is because we have to be. Being strong keeps us alive. That's all"

Ada didn't say anything. She just thought. There was something Claire was keeping from her. Something that needed to get out in the open if they were going to make any real progress.

"Come with me" she said, leading them back the way they had come.

Claire eyed her suspiciously, "Now where are we going?"

**III**

"So? It's the roof of Leon's apartment. Big deal"

They had both walked back they way they came, back home to Leon's apartment building. Once inside, Ada had led Claire up into the elevator and out through a roof access door. A door that was usually locked but Ada had picked so many times before.

"I like to come up here, to look out at the buildings and park and the lake", Ada said, stepping on the edge of the roof and looking outwards, letting the wind blow through her hair in an almost dreamlike manner.

"Why?"

"Because it puts things in perspective. Or maybe I just like the view"

Now Claire was starting to get weirded out. Ada wouldn't have brought her up to the roof without a purpose.

"You're going to have to talk about them eventually" Ada stated matter-of-factly, not taking her gaze off the view.

"Who?" Claire asked, feigning ignorance.

The statement caught her off guard. It was not what she was expecting in the slightest.

"Birkin's daughter. Sherry. And that boy you mentioned…what was his name? Steve, I think it was"

Claire clammed up almost immediately.

"Don't be so tight lipped Claire. I can see you're hurting inside" Ada said, turning around to face her and taking a few steps forward.

She invited Claire to sit down next to her on an outcropping of brick that had once been someone's flower garden. Old patches of dirt and moss still clung to it. And yet, it made a decent enough bench.

Claire did as she was told reluctantly. And before she could even stop herself, she was telling Ada all about what she had gone through in Racoon. How making sure that little girl made it out of the city alive had been her only real purpose. She recounted how her heart had broken, watching Sherry say goodbye to her mother. A casualty of her and her husband's experiments. What was worse was the lack of proper time that Annette had spent with her daughter. And how that little girl would grow up an orphan. Just one more notch that Umbrella could add to its already large belt of atrocities. Claire told Ada how she had looked into Sherry's eyes and promised that she'd come back for her once she had found her brother. And then she mentioned how crushed she had been to come back and find her gone.

Rockfort and Antarctica hadn't been that better. Even though they hadn't known each other that long, Claire still cared about Steve Burnside and how they had fought through hell together. How he had been forced to kill his father, a victim of the T-virus. Even though he had been a bit childish and aloof, she couldn't have helped but feel for him. And over the next several hours, their bond grew. The two of them fighting for each other's survival rather than just their own. Then her story moved to gut wrenching sorrow as she told Ada in detail how he had been captured and experimented on. How this young man had literally turned into a monster right in front of her eyes only to change at the last moment and sacrifice himself to save her life.

"I didn't even get to bury him" she said, starring out at the city scape, her face held in her hands.

She didn't want to admit it but a part of herself had been lost in Antarctica with him forever.

They didn't speak much after that. Claire just stared out into space, recounting the events of the last six or seven years. Ada just sat and watched her, digesting what she had been told while also trying to make the connections to her own life.

"You know Claire, I've been thinking. And I figured out what makes you so unhappy about all of this. Me and Leon I mean", Ada said, leaning back so her head rested on the brick wall behind her.

"Oh, you do now don't you?" she asked skeptically.

"Yes. But you're not going to like what I have to hear"

Claire was annoyed by the woman's hesitance, "We all have to hear bad news in our life. What's one more snippet?"

"Fine then. All your life, you've had things taken from you"

"No, really? Geez, you should go into counseling" Claire said, bored and unimpressed with Ada's assumptions of her life.

Ada rolled her eyes. Claire was making things unnecessarily difficult.

"Stop and think about it for a moment. Your parents died in an accident while you were in your teens. You lost your brother while he was off trying to bring down Umbrella. You had that little girl you keep mentioning taken. You're friend in Antartica that died. You couldn't even help the people you set out to while being a part of Terra Save. That incident at the airport must have really taken the wind out from under your wings. If you'll pardon me for saying"

"Your humor sucks" Claire said, dejectedly.

"It wasn't supposed to be a pun. And I wasn't trying to be funny. I'm trying to make a point"

"What is the point you're trying to make Ada?"

Ada stood up and walked in front of Claire while she stayed sitting. "The point, if you've been paying attention, is that no matter what you always get the things you care about taken away from you. You can't allow yourself to be happy at all. But above it all, when you see me with Leon, in all honesty, it frightens you. Because you think that's one more thing about you which is being taken away"

"That's ridiculous" Claire said incredulously, standing up and turning her back on Ada.

"It's not and you know it. The hard truth is that you're also scared that someone else gets to be truly happy while you're not"

Claire felt anger well up in her chest. She didn't know if she wanted to scream or cry. Nothing would come out. All that happened was an uncomfortable pressure stayed locked away in her chest. She didn't want Ada to be right, but knew very well that she was.

Ada shrugged, "It's understandable. And I don't think it selfish of you at all. But it is something you have to come to terms with, Claire"

She didn't know what to say. All Claire could do was look at the ground, her bottom lip trembling. Then she said something that Ada didn't quite catch.

"What was that?" she asked curiously.

"They took them from me" she almost whispered. "Wesker took Sherry from me. And I lost Steve. Both to him and that bitch, Alexia. I didn't even get a chance to bury him. Wesker took his body for fucking experiments. He said that he could even come back to life. But in the six years since then. I've never seen Steve since."

Tears started to form in her eyes. Claire brushed them away, determined not to look weak in front of Ada. She looked at the Asian woman with a stiff upper lip.

"They took them from me Ada. And I don't know how I can ever get them back. If I can get them back. Or if they're still alive"

Just then, she did something that Claire never expected. Ada crossed the distance between them and embraced Claire in a hug. The action took her by surprise. This was the closest she'd come to Ada without wanting to stab the woman. Ada held her with a tight yet gently force. It was almost nurturing and it reminded Claire of her mother. Slowly, like a creature out of its element, Claire raised her arms and returned Ada's hug.

In a few seconds, they broke away from each other and Ada rested her hands on Claire's shoulders.

"Looks like we have more in common than you realize" she said.

"Yeah" Claire sighed, "Looks like it" she sighed finally defeated.

Ada was right. They were comrades in this crazy mixed up world. She put her hands on Claire's shoulders, trying to make her see the reality of everything she was feeling.

"You can not let one moment continue to define you for the rest of your life. You can let it shape you into the person you are. But dwelling on it day after day, and year after year? It's not healthy Claire. Nor is it realistic"

"So you're saying I should forget?" she said, breaking away from Ada.

Ada wagged her index finger back and forth in a 'tsk, tsk' sign, "I didn't say that. But keeping it all bottled up inside you like you have been is acting as a barrier. You're not doing yourself any good by thinking about all the 'what ifs' or things that are outside of your control"

Claire threw up her arms, "And what should I do then?"

"You have to find a way to move on with your life in a productive manner. And I'd be a hypocrite if I said that you're the only one who's done that. I know I've done it to an extent"

"No, you tried to shut yourself off and ignore it" Claire accused.

"True, but like I said, things change. And I think that's what needs to happen here with you Claire. You've already made huge steps with Terra save. But a messiah complex isn't going to help you win this war"

Claire turned and looked out over the city. Or maybe she was looking inside of herself for answers. Answers that had been given to her over the last few hours. Answers she was having a hard time accepting.

"So, you can sit there and continue to feel sorry for yourself, lamenting at your losses. Or you can take what you've accomplished and turn it towards getting what you want out of this life" Ada told her.

**Author's note: Yes, I know it's been a long time since I updated. Hopefully you guys read this and throw out a few reviews. Who knows where the next few chapters will take us.**


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